Wrongly charged congestion charge - Help!

[cbenz]

Hi,

Hopefully some of you may be able to help!

My sister has wrongly been sent a penalty notice for not paying the London congestion charge. It's for £40, rising to £80/£120.

She was not in London on the day in question and has never driven to London! Her new car which was registered in July 2003 only has 500 miles on the clock and a round trip from her home to London would be around 130 miles - a quarter of her total mileage to date!

She works part-time but unfortunately not on the day in question so can't get a letter from her employer to say she was not in London.

It would appear there is a problem with the Automatic Number Plate Recognition technology as in it's not 100% accurate.

Is it simply your word against there's? Do the cameras just take the numberplate or a pic of the back of the car which would prove it one way or another?

If you end up involving a solicitor, it would probably cost more than the fine?

Any ideas?

 

[Kinky]

Check on Pistonheads. It's been covered quite a bit on there, as some PH'ers have been "alledgedly done".

Admittedly I've not paid any attention to the specific topics as it's of no interest to me.

 

[Sp!ke]

Don't back down, fight it tooth and nail...

The burden of proof lies with them. The have to prove that your sisters car *was* in the charging zone on the date and time in question.

If they have no picture evidence then they have *no* evidence!

 

[Guy]

One of the reasons people on this site blank out the reg plate on pics of their cars is to stop people cloning them; the crooks spot a car the same model, colour, as theirs; put your plate on their car and you get sent the congestion charge bill, as the registered owner.

Write back, set out the facts of where the car was on the day, and refuse to pay.

They know it happens, they just don't like to admit it.

Hope this helps, and good luck.

 

[Dave Kerr]

Ask them to send the photo through to you, I heard from a colleague at work that a friend of his who owns a motorcycle shop got done recently, the reg in question belonged to a motorcycle, the photo was of a Merc of all things, the Merc did have his reg on it though.

Dave

 

[pluggers]

Yes definatly fight this one.Same sort of problems have appeared around here.People getting a congestion charge when they live over 150 miles away.They have asked for photo evidence,which they have recieved and low and behold same reg plate completly different vehicle to which they own.Only problem is that this thing keeps coming back because when the cloned vehicle goes through the congestion charge area again,These poor buggers get yet another charge and have to prove their innocence yet again.