TFL Issue Incorrect fines over car number plate ULEZ
Reg Plates ArticleTFL Issue Incorrect fines over car number plate ULEZ
Unjust Ulez Fines Leave Motorists Frustrated
Two motorists have been wrongly fined for driving in London's Ultra-Low Emission Zone (Ulez) after their car registration plates were cloned. Despite providing evidence that their vehicles were not in the capital at the time of the alleged offenses, they have been forced to battle with Transport for London (TfL) to get the fines overturned.
C and FC from London received parking and speeding fines, which they promptly contested. However, their auto-pay account with TfL had already been debited by £400 in Ulez penalties. After canceling auto-pay, they were further harassed with a £200 demand from debt collectors. TfL initially refused to accept that the offending car was not theirs, despite clear evidence to the contrary.
AW from Northampton found herself in a similar situation. She received multiple Ulez fines even though she had never driven to London. Photos attached to the fines showed a number plate one digit different to her own. Despite repeated appeals, the fines kept coming, leading her to fear that the situation would never be resolved.
TfL admitted that it had failed to spot a "bolt" in the cloned number plate, causing a D to be mistaken for a B. The agency apologized and placed a marker on the account to prevent further errors. It also finally accepted that C and FC were not liable for the fines and apologized for the distress caused, promising a "full" refund.
These cases highlight the need for TfL to improve its processes for verifying registration plates and issuing fines. The current system is clearly flawed and is causing unnecessary stress and inconvenience for motorists.
How close a series of letters or numbers are to a real name of word: if the match quality is high (and the numbers and letters are very convincing in making a popular word), the value of the registration plate will be higher. This means that a match like 5IMON, for the name Simon, will be worth a lot more than a more obscure set of letters and numbers that are not as convincing a match, such as S17 MMM for the name Sam.
The style of the plate: this means establishing if it is a new-style plate, an older-style format or if it is dateless or Irish, for instance. Other options are that it is a prefix-style plate or a suffix-style plate. New-style number plates, which have been produced since 2001, tend to be the least valuable because they are a bit less appealing to some collectors, plus the rule about not having plates that are newer than your car can also come into play, putting people off from buying a newer-style plate for their older car. Prefix-style number plates, which were in production between 1983 and 2001 can be more popular as more vehicles are entitled to have those licence numbers, and they may have fewer characters in total. Suffix-style plates, issued from 1963 to 1983 are relatively rare, which means they can attract higher prices than prefix-style plates and newer designs. Dateless number plates, also known as cherished number plates, were produced between 1903 and 1963 and are nearly always the most valuable number plate configurations; they have fewer digits and their dateless nature means that people can hide the age of their car. Irish number plates are similar to dateless number plates, especially because they don’t have a year identifier. They also tend to be cheaper than other types of vehicle registration plates.
- FREE TRANSFER SERVICE - your paperwork is handled by our trained team
- OVER 30 YEARS EXPERTISE - long established and trusted company
- DVLA RECOGNISED RESELLER - linked directly from the DVLA website
- TRADE ASSOCIATION MEMBERS - MIRAD and CN Guild members
