Continuous fines for congestion zone - can I invoice TFL for my time?!

lolamancity

I have a Renault Megane, registration plate that ends in NLD. For over 12 months now, every couple of weeks, I recieve a postal fine for a congestion zone charge for a Renault Clio with a registration plate the same as mine apart ending in NLO. 

The first fine I got, I panicked and assumed as the vehicles were similar, my plates have been cloned and the plates on the supplied photographs were mine. Spent time and effort informing TFL, DVLA and The Met Police with all my evidence, that someone had cloned my plates. Still the fines came, before 1 day it occurred to me that maybe the plate wasn't the same - I played around with permutations and discovered the vehicle details matched a plate ending in NLO, and not NLD like mine.

The following fines, I disputed online as usual detailing my findings that this was not my problem as it is not my car in any way shape or form. Still they came. 

So I then submitted a complaint and it was acted upon because I received the usual "we've cancelled this [latest] fine" letter in the post for the latest fine that I didn't dispute as I raised a complaint instead. In the complaint I stated that this was taking up so much of my time now that I'd appreciate being given an address I could invoice my time to in future as it is absolutely nothing to do with me. It simply is not my Reg plate nor car, the problem is their shoddy cameras not reading the plates correctly.

But still these fines come!

What can I do? This harassment is driving me MAD! 

born_again

Tongue in cheek

Treat yourself to a personal plate 👍

If you are worried about the constant cost of having to dispute the charges, £250 would be money well spent.

Is your plate in the correct font?

Goudy

I know someone that had a problem getting fines because of a similar problem.
It turned out to be a misread of a letter due to the position of a screw in the other car's number plate.

The other party were blindly racking up charges and fines without knowing. I expect they had auto pay set up and thought they hadn't been clocked.

They had terrible trouble getting TFL to take action, they aren't in the business of helping, just making money and threats just bounce off them.

Eventually TFL put a marker on their system after constant badgering, this meant no charges/fines could be issued without manually checking the images, but in the meantime the owner just put a cheap private plate on their car. 

I know it's not the answer you were looking for, but sometimes you have to do these things to keep your sanity.

lolamancity

born_again said:

Tongue in cheek

Treat yourself to a personal plate 👍

If you are worried about the constant cost of having to dispute the charges, £250 would be money well spent.

Is your plate in the correct font?

Yep, everything as standard with my plate. Thank god I don't actually live in London as I'd probably have had auto payment set up and would be thousands of pounds down now rather than just admin time! Car isn't worth a great amount so buying a private reg wouldn't make much sense right now  

lolamancity

Goudy said:

I know someone that had a problem getting fines because of a similar problem.
It turned out to be a misread of a letter due to the position of a screw in the other car's number plate.

The other party were blindly racking up charges and fines without knowing. I expect they had auto pay set up and thought they hadn't been clocked.

They had terrible trouble getting TFL to take action, they aren't in the business of helping, just making money and threats just bounce off them.

Eventually TFL put a marker on their system after constant badgering, this meant no charges/fines could be issued without manually checking the images, but in the meantime the owner just put a cheap private plate on their car. 

I know it's not the answer you were looking for, but sometimes you have to do these things to keep your sanity.

This sounds like an almost exact case, it could  well be the positioning of a screw near this other vehicles O - from what I've read in the past, I'm not sure their car would qualify for the congestion charge as theirs is petrol and mines diesel. So basically TFL is harassing me for a car that's compliant anyway, argh. I would've thought me filing a complaint and using lots of capital letters might have made them do as your example states, putting a marker for manual review on the Reg, but alas, no. And now I don't know what to do next. 

eskbanker

lolamancity said:
I would've thought me filing a complaint and using lots of capital letters might have made them do as your example states, putting a marker for manual review on the Reg, but alas, no.

Using lots of capital letters may have had the opposite effect - personally I usually roll my eyes at the sight of posts on here with excessive use of SHOUTY CAPS, which detract from, rather than enhancing, credibility IMHO.  Taking the time to construct a compelling argument and expressing it articulately and dispassionately is generally more productive as far as I'm concerned, but I'm aware that this isn't a universal view!

lolamancity

Normally I'd agree with you, but at that point of my previous mountains of articulate correspondence being continously ignored, and the overriding feeling of being treated like "computer says no", my petulance got the better of me. 

Herzlos

I'd be sorely tempted to let some of them go to collections and then court, show the judge the obvious evidence that it's the wrong car and how much time you wasted previously chasing them about it and ask for your costs back.

Sadly unless it hurts TfL they probably won't do anything meaningful about it.

There'd also be nothing wrong with starting a 'money claim online' against TfL headquarters for your time every time you fight one.

Nobbie1967

I think I would write them a short letter explaining that you have made them aware of this issue and asking them to review all future fines on your registration before sending them out. Further more, If they fail to do this then you will charge them a handling fee for each fine received in error to compensate for your time in dealing with the matter and distress caused.

If they continue to send fines, issue a ‘money claim online’ for the amount owed as per your charging schedule. Should be a pretty straightforward case.

ThorOdinson

Possible GDPR issue too, if they are getting your personal data based on repeatedly misreading the plate.

jimjames

born_again said:

Is your plate in the correct font?

It would make zero difference if their car was in any font at all, it's not their car getting caught by the cameras!