More than £20,000 in parking fines is being refunded by a council which illegally targeted hundreds of cars.

Sunderland City Council admitted about 700 tickets were wrongly put on cars parked in taxi ranks across the city.

The authority said while it was illegal for cars to park in any of the city's 14 taxi ranks, its wardens did not have legal powers to issue tickets.

Penalty charges start at £30 if paid within a set timescale but can rise depending on when payment is made.

It is not known how many of the 700 tickets were paid for at the £30 rate or at a higher rate but the lowest amount the council will have to refund will be £21,000.

The council is urging anyone who has paid a fine to make contact for their money back.

A council spokeswoman said: "A number of penalty charge notices were issued incorrectly to motorists who were illegally parked in taxi ranks and we will be taking steps to identify and reimburse motorists.

"We have identified that about 700 penalty charge notices were paid after being issued by parking attendants acting in good faith against drivers who were breaking the law by parking in clearly designated taxi ranks."

The matter came to light as part of a continuing dispute over the legality of parking charges mounted by angry motorists and political campaigners.

They claim that proper legal orders have not been implemented by the council since it took over responsibility in 2003. Sunderland City Council's director of development and regeneration, Phil Barrett, said: "Although the issue of these tickets was an error and is regrettable, it affected only a very small proportion of the 61,000-plus tickets issued since the decriminalised parking system came into force in February 2003.

"It is an anomaly relating to the implementation of just one aspect of the city's parking system."