COUNCIL bosses in York used bailiffs and debt recovery agents more than 12,000 times in three years to help secure money owed to the city, according to civil liberties campaigners.

Figures released by Big Brother Watch showed City of York Council used the process on 12,412 occasions between 2007 and 2010 to chase unpaid council tax and parking fines.

Bailiffs were brought in for 8,299 council tax cases and 4,113 parking infringement matters.

David Walker, the council’s head of financial procedures, said: “The council only ever uses bailiffs as a last resort, but all local authorities have a responsibility to residents to collect outstanding debt.

Elizabeth Levett, head of parking services, said only eight per cent of parking tickets resulted in bailiff action, and this only happened when motorists ignored warning letters and those whose appeals failed but still declined to pay.