Q. How many drivers does it take to get €40k in fines ? A. Just ONE!

And this serial offender is not alone with eight other motorists racking up bills of at least €7k

A SINGLE driver has run up unpaid parking fines of more than €40,000 in an affluent Dublin suburb.

Details released by Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council reveal how nine separate drivers have amassed bills of at least €7,000 each, sometimes for hundreds of individual offences.

An anonymised list of the worst offenders shows that the top nine have run up a combined bill of €147,400 in unpaid fines.

The person with the worst record has refused to pay no less than 668 fines, which come to €40,080.

Fines are charged at the rate of €60 in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown with a higher punishment of €120 applying to those who park in a disabled bay.

None of the fines for the serial offender with the €40,000 bill were for using a disabled space. The local authority said this individual had 22 convictions relating to unpaid parking fines and eight separate bench warrants for arrest or disqualification from driving. The council has no authority to enforce such court orders.

Another individual owes €28,800 for 473 offences, which works out at an

average of just over €60 – meaning this person has, at least once, been fined for parking in a disabled bay.

The next worst serial offender has run up unpaid fines of €21,540 (359 offences) – more than double that of the person in fourth place, who owes €10,440 (174).

Another individual owes €14,320 after being caught 127 times – in most cases for using a disabled parking bay.

The council said it pursues non-pay ers through the courts securing more than 2,700 convictions over the past three years.

It added: ‘Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council has a policy of pursuing non-payment of fixed charge offence notices through legal proceed ings [or] legal action in the district court.

‘In action taken against the above offenders, two vehicles were removed and disposed of in accordance with the appropriate legislation.

‘Two registered owners of vehicles were disqualified from driving and multiple convictions have been secured against offenders.’

The council’s compliance levels have been rising in recent years and, in 2016, it reached its highest rate with 78% of those fined paying up. This was up from a low of 68% in 2013.

It said these compliance rates were higher when unregistered vehicles – usually from abroad – were excluded.

Over the past five years, the local authority has issued just over 120,000 parking fines, which, at a conservative estimate, would have yielded €7.2m in revenue had every one of them been paid. In South Dublin County Council, the problem of repeat offenders is not quite so pronounced.

However, enforcement rates are lower there and have hovered between 60% and 70% over the past six years. These rates were 61% in 2011 and reached their peak the following year when they hit 70%.

Last year, 68% of people in the area who were given a fine paid up either immediately or paid the higher amount that kicks in after four weeks.

Dublin City Council does not issue parking fines and relies on clamping to keep drivers in line.

Despite its effectiveness, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown said it will not implement clamping and will instead continue to pursue non-payers through the courts.

Details of parking fines issued in the fourth Dublin local authority, Fingal County Council, are not yet available.