US embassy owes £2m in unpaid C-charge bills

The US embassy in London owes more than £2 million in unpaid congestion charge payments, having branded the levy "illegal".

It heads the list of foreign embassies in London which have resisted the charge, the top 20 of which owe £10million collectively.

Figures released by Transport for London under the Freedom of Information Act show the Japanese embassy is the second worst offender, owing £1,003,300.

The US state department ordered embassy staff to stop paying the C-charge in July 2005, declaring it illegal under the Vienna Convention. The decision prompted Mayor Ken Livingstone to describe American ambassador Robert Tuttle as a "chiselling little crook". A spokesman for the Mayor said: "The congestion charge is a charge for service ... and not a tax."

But a spokesman from the Japanese embassy, which stopped making payments on 1 August 2006, said: "The government of Japan reached an understanding that the charge corresponds to neither 'dues and taxes ... such as represents payment for specific services rendered'... Therefore the embassy should be exempt from the charge."