A COUPLE has launched a landmark legal case to overturn controversial bus lane fines that could open the floodgates to hundreds of similar challenges.

Geoffrey and Dawn Bonelle are fighting back against Scotland’s most lucrative bus lane camera, which has raked in £1.3 million from motorists in a single year.

The couple from Livingston claim their original £30 fine – imposed after Mr Bonelle, 67, drove through a bus gate in October 2014 – was unfair due to a lack warning signs.

Motorists have been hit with nearly £3m in penalty charges for driving through the gate at Nelson Mandela Place, in Glasgow city centre, in just over a year.

Mrs Bonelle, 59, said: “We want our day in court to see if the sheriff can make the council prove these signs were not only legal but were in the correct place and correct height.”

“They have made a lot of money from this bus gate. We hope this case would open the doors for thousands of other drivers.”

Unlike speed-camera fines, which go the UK Treasury, those from the bus lane cameras are retained by the city council for transport improvements.

Mrs Bonelle paid a £274 fine “under duress” because they were worried the council might try to make a claim on their possessions, including their home.

But now they are launching a civil case to recoup that cost and hope it may become a test case that will allow others to claim their fines are unfair.

“We want to claim the money back because we feel they can’t prove and haven’t proved the signs were not only legal, but put on the right place, at the right height,” said Mrs Bonelle.

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Greg Whyte, of legal firm Jones Whyte Law, said if the court found in their favour it would open up avenues for others to make legal challenges.

He said: “The crux of their case is that area is not properly signposted.

“If a sheriff at Glasgow Sheriff Court rules that they are correct, it opens the floodgates for those who have one of these tickets to say they didn’t see it either and had no reason to believe it was a bus lane.”

In August, it emerged motorists who flouted the bus lane ban at Nelson Mandela Place had paid out £1.3m in fines after 70,000 charge notices issued to car drivers between the end of June and the end of July last year.

The council said 44,000 of the fines had been paid to date.

Many of these had been reduced from £60 to £30 because they were settled within two weeks.

The council then warned outstanding fines would be pursued, and passed to a debt recovery agency if necessary. If all are paid, that would produce another £1.5m.

Bus lane fines paid across the city totalled £1.6m in 2014 and £1.2m in the first half of 2015. This compares to nearly £3.3m in 2013.

A Glasgow City Council spokesman said: “Numerous signs and variable messaging have been in place to alert drivers to the bus gate at Nelson Mandela Place since June 2014.

“Since then the number of fixed penalty notices issued on this location has dropped significantly as people are choosing not to drive through what is now a very well-known and publicised bus gate.”