Criminals copying number plates to avoid paying ULEZ zone charges

The black-uniformed bailiff who showed up at Fran Abrams’ front door early one morning made it clear that he wasn’t going to leave empty-handed.

With his body cam filming the encounter, this man had been sent by Mayor Sadiq Khan’s Transport for London (TfL) to her rural home in Suffolk to collect an ever-growing sum of money in connection with what started as an unpaid fine of £80 notice.

Blocking her driveway with his van and armed with a court order for an unpaid debt, the bailiff made it clear that if the 60-year-old education adviser failed to deliver a now outstanding sum of £559, her ten-year-old diesel VW Beetle would be removed instead.

Downward spiral

The fine was related to a red route parking offense nearly 100 miles away in the capital – one of three separate offenses she has been battling TfL for nearly a year.

Two of the fines were for red route parking offenses in Manse Road in Hackney, East London, the third was for failure to pay the daily non-compliant £12.50 Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) charge .

The reason for her sheer annoyance? It just wasn’t her car that was caught on TfL’s cameras three times. It was a similar looking vehicle with a cloned license plate replicating hers. She hadn’t been there.

Oddly, of her three appeals, the first in Hackney was ultimately successful, but the second almost identical parking objection was rejected – leading to frantic but ultimately futile pleas for two district courts and TfL’s bailiffs to have the case dropped.

Her third appeal, directed against the ULEZ infringement, was also rejected at first, but then disappeared into a bureaucratic black hole that left her in limbo: ‘Since then ten months have passed and I have nothing more to say about it heard,” says Fran.

Growing problem

The AA and auto advocates warn that an increasing number of motorists across the country will face experiences similar to Fran’s as the current “car cloning epidemic” will explode if the mayor’s controversial plans Khan to expand the capital’s ULEZ zone continue – with many more criminals cloning license plates to copy those of law-abiding car owners.

At present, the ULEZ is an area within London’s Northern and Southern Ring Roads, but will be extended to cover the whole of the capital from August 29, when it will be extended to the Kent, Essex, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Surrey borders.

The ULEZ expansion is being challenged in the Supreme Court by municipalities affected by the move, including neighboring counties.

Expanding soon: ULEZ will cover the entire capital if Mayor Khan’s controversial plans go ahead

Fran’s full account of her ordeal was overwhelming, but the arrival of the TfL bailiff at her door late last month proved to be the final straw that led her, in desperation, to call me at the Daily Mail for help.

“At first I thought it was the police,” says Fran. “He was wearing a black uniform and said he was filming with his bodycam. It all felt quite intimidating.

“I told the bailiff I wouldn’t let him take my belongings. I had already told his company, Marston Recovery, that this had nothing to do with me and I had been advised not to let enforcers into my home, so I told him not to enter.

‘He said he didn’t have to because he had permission to take my car, which is worth about £7,500. He had already blocked the driveway with his van so I couldn’t drive away.

“At that point I gave in. He said I would have to pay him £559 so I gave my credit card,” she adds.

Messages about fines: top tips

Get organized: Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) challenges and appeals follow strict timelines.

Keep an eye on the time: You have 28 days to appeal to an independent tribunal after a formal PCN challenge has been rejected. If it reaches the district courts, it usually takes 21 days.

Connect the dots: Don’t expect organizations to ‘dot the i’s and cross the t’. Each PCN follows set forms and you must be on top on each one.

Get it right: Follow processes to the letter, including time limits.

Answer quickly: Communicate with relevant organizations as soon as possible for any single notification to hold debts while an investigation/grievance procedure is conducted.

Seek help: If you hit a brick wall with an appeal, seek help from Citizens Advice or a lawyer, and the sooner the better.

What must we do

Fran had done everything TfL asked of her to appeal and prove her innocence.

This included sending a statement that she was not in London at the time, evidence of the location of her vehicle when the offenses occurred and police reference numbers.

She said Suffolk Police even told her that ‘this happened so often they stopped recording the offenses as crimes’.

Leading car lawyer Jeanette Miller of Geoffrey Miller Solicitors (motoroffence.co.uk), who has dealt with similar cases, says: ‘ULEZ caused a huge increase in car cloning.

In the past six months alone, nearly 5,000 tickets have been canceled and many more have been paid for by innocent victims. The planned expansion will contribute to this.

“Many police departments don’t even give the reference number Fran was given because it’s so common. This makes the job more difficult.

“The process may be deliberately complicated and riddled with time limits that could end with no further redress.”

AA chairman Edmund King says: ‘This isn’t just a London issue – it will affect innocent motorists across the country who will be fined for something they didn’t do.’

When the Daily Mail contacted Transport for London with an evidence file supplied by Fran, TfL quickly apologized for the way it had been treated.

It also canceled outstanding tickets and said it would refund the £559 cost, offer compensation for her distress and wasted time and review their methods.

Accepting its failure, TfL later described Fran’s experience as an ‘extreme’ case and that it was ‘speculation’ to suggest that such cases would increase with the expansion of the ULEZ.

Lawyer Jeanette Miller says: ‘Fran has been very lucky, thanks to the intervention of the Daily Mail.

“For those struggling with a similar issue, it might be an idea to contact your local MP and ask them to write a letter, as your complaint will likely carry more weight.”