Zimbabwe's UK embassy shamed over unpaid rates

By Staff Reporter

ZIMBABWE has been named and shamed on a list of foreign embassies in Britain owing more than £1.3 million in unpaid parking fines and rates.

The British foreign office has been forced to release the list in a bid to shame the embassies into paying-up, officials said this week.

The list, given in a written statement by Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, also shows that 16 serious offences were allegedly committed last year by some of the 20,000 foreign officials benefiting from diplomatic immunity.

It was not immediately possible to verify if there were any Zimbabwean officials linked to ‘serious crimes’. The definition of “serious” is crimes that could otherwise result in a year or more in jail.

Zimbabwe is one of the African serial offenders alongside Mozambique, Cameroon, Nigeria and Libya, although the Foreign Office has withheld the names of 12 states owing more than £10,000 because they have made arrangements to pay.

Libya tops the list of diplomatic missions which owe money for traffic violations, running up a bill of £34,480 for 365 offences.

It is followed by Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Georgia at the head of a list of 64 nations who have 11 or more fines still to be paid.

The sums remain outstanding despite a plea from the Foreign Office to all missions to pay up in May which yielded just under £50,000.

Foreign missions are also yet to settle 1,847 fines for non-payment of the central London congestion charge: Egypt with 250, United Arab Emirates 182 and Angola 126 topping the list.

Almost £1 million is owed in national non-domestic rates for embassy and other buildings.
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