A driver was issued a Ulez fine by Transport for London (TfL) – despite his car being parked 200 miles away in Manchester when the supposed offence happened.
Arthur Bailey, a retired designer, complained after his son received a fine for driving his car through the capital even though his vehicle “had never been within a hundred miles of London”.
It is just one of countless incidents of drivers being handed incorrect penalty notices due to cameras wrongly identifying their cars as being within the zone.
In the case of Bailey’s son, he was sent a fine relating to a Nissan SUV, despite driving an entirely different vehicle - a Ford Mondeo.
A motorist in Manchester was slapped with a Ulez fine for driving through London - despite being 200 miles away at the time of the apparent offence
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Bailey told The Telegraph: “My son received a penalty charge from them with the registration number and correct details of his vehicle. However the vehicle in the attached photograph, the ‘proof’ of the alleged crime, was clearly a completely different vehicle to his, possibly a Nissan SUV and certainly not the Ford Mondeo he owned which had never been within a hundred miles of London.
“This typifies how incompetent the Ulez system is. You’d think they’d have better things to do than chase fines for the wrong vehicles.”
TfL later established that Bailey’s number plate had been cloned and used on another car, resulting in the charge.
The Greater London Council body has since waived the fine.
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A TfL spokesman said it was examining the case and that it has “procedures to deal with these issues and where people have been charged incorrectly they will be refunded”.
Yesterday, TfL admitted that it had incorrectly fined a motorist for using his car in London despite him having donated it to the Ukrainian war effort months earlier.
Charles Cooper drove his Volvo SUV to Ukraine in August 2023, but received several Ulez fines from TfL after his car was allegedly spotted by automated number plate recognition cameras in London last October.
The chartered accountant said the fines were sent late last year but he did not receive them straight away as he was travelling in Greece.
After returning home in January, he found letters from TfL who had escalated the threats to take him to court for non-payment, forcing Cooper to spend over £300 on lawyers to fight the case.
Sadiq Khan's controversial clean air scheme first launched in 2021, and was expanded to Greater London in August 2023
PAHe said that TfL sent him a blurry photo of a car which they claimed belonged to him, demanding hundreds of pounds from him in penalties through the courts - he said he would “rather go to prison” than pay the fee.
TfL later admitted their mistake, stating that the penalty was “issued in error” and have rescinded the fine.
Earlier this year, five EU nations accused TfL of illegally obtaining the names and addresses of their citizens visiting the British capital to issue more than 320,000 penalties.
The penalty notices first started being sent out in 2021, when Sadiq Khan’s Clear Air scheme was first launched, and some total as high as thousands of euros.
One driver from France was fined £25,000 by TfL, despite his vehicle being exempt, The Guardian has reported.
France, Germany, Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands have claimed that the details of the drivers were acquired by Euro Parking Collection, the contractor who enforces Ulez overseas.
Unpaid Ulez penalty charge fines stand at £180 for each day spent driving a non-compliant vehicle without an exemption or discount.