Man admits posting Facebook messages encouraging people to damage Ulez cameras

A man has admitted posting messages on Facebook encouraging people to damage Ulez cameras.

Joseph Nicolls, 43, also pleaded guilty to sending a threatening email to a company which provides cameras for the scheme.

Nicolls, of Foots Cray High Street, Sidcup, sent Yunex Traffic a message in May last year intended to cause ‘distress or anxiety’, Woolwich Crown Court heard.

The company’s infrastructure and technology have been ‘at the core’ of Ulez, as well as similar schemes in Birmingham and Portsmouth, according to its website.

Nicolls’ Facebook posts were capable of ‘encouraging or assisting others’ to carry out ‘criminal damage to or theft of Ulez cameras’, according to court documents.

Vigilantes repeatedly targeted the cameras after the Ulez area was expanded to cover all of London last year.

Vehicles that do not meet minimum emissions standards are required to pay a £12.50 daily fee when used in the Ulez zone, or face a fine.

Videos have been posted online showing people described as Blade Runners cutting the cameras’ wires or completely removing the devices.

The secretive Ulez Blade Runners are an activist group that has vowed to remove ‘every single one’ of the Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras used within the Ulez.

The cameras are designed to catch out drivers in vehicles that do not meet the standards required in the Ulez, and must pay a fee.

Speaking to MailOnline, one member of the Blade Runners said he had stolen 34 ULEZ cameras, and that he was part of a group of more than 100 people covering different areas across London.

‘In terms of damage it’s way more than what [Khan and TfL] have stated. It’s at least a couple of hundred,’ he said.‘Snipping, damaging with hammers, painting, disabling on a circuit level and removing. They are unbolted and they are snipped.

Nicolls will be sentenced at the same court on September 20.

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