Free Traffic Legal Advice

Hi All I was wondering if I could get some advice please on quite a crazy situation.

A friend of mine is currently serving a jail sentence and has been for over a year.

• Whilst inside there are multiple people that have been going in an out of his house to feed the fish, collect the post, check on everything and as such his vehicles keys and vehicle where there.
• Someone (we don't know who) has been using the vehicle (assuming it is his car that's been used and not cloned plates which may also be the case)
• As such there is now 2 ULEZ charges and 2 Birmingham Clean Air Zone Charges which have gone through to the courts and they are looking to recover significant amounts (£280 each for ULEZ and £190 each for Clean Air Zone)
• I did attempt to contact both ULEZ and Clean air zone when the fines originally came through to explain that the registered owner and keeper is in prison, I provided a solicitors letter proving the same and both councils came back refusing the challenge saying it is still his responsibility.
• How can this be so if he; 1) Has no knowledge or control over who's used the car as he is sat in a prison cell and 2) has no way of paying the fines or reading the correspondence whist inside? 

Is there anything we can do or anyone we can speak to about it? The correspondence now are talking about TE9 forms but they are for failed procedures if I understand that correctly? and they require you to pay for it to be signed off by someone?

I don't actually understand it all to be honest I just want to try and resolve the matter even if it means me paying out of my pocket the original fine amounts and getting it back off him as and when but paying out £560 to ULEZ and £380 to Clean Air Zone is just too much.

any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

There is a statutory defence of The vehicle being driven without the owners pernission, but as said lets see the documents and evidence

He can't appeal anything, that boat has sailed for the moment and whether it will return to port is unclear.

OP, in order to speed this along I suggest you and he park '.....without consent..', it's hopeless based on what you've said. Of course he gave consent: he left the keys there so that the vehicles) could be used as and when necessary.

This is about procedure and as already stated we need documents. We also need to know how and when correspondence with authorities was sent. So far this matter has NOT been passed to bailiffs(the sums owed would be higher) therefore we're left to assume that Orders for Recovery have been issued, and prior to these Charge Certificates.

IMO, if any correspondence was sent to the authorities prior to the CC and OfR notifying them that the owner was in prison - which in our parlance means that the authorities may not use the address supplied by DVLA - then the critical docs were not served and Out of Time submissions, or in-time if applicable, should succeed. It's possible to mange one's affairs from with a prison(but I don't speak with personal experience!).

We do not need to know about the contraventions themselves, we need documents, yours and theirs.

Whether consent was given will depend on the circumstances. There's a world of difference between leaving the keys on display and allowing/encouraging use of the car vs someone accessing them surreptitiously, or even expressly against the wishes of the owner.

The fact the OP and owner are none the wiser as to who's been taking the vehicle give an impression it's been done on the sly.

+1 sometimes I just cannot see how HCA reaches  his conclusions I the guy is locked up how can it be said he de facto gives consent for someone to drive his car

We don't have enough information to comment properly on this.

Where is the vehicle kept - on or off road? Was it laid up and SORNed or was someone getting it MOT'd and taxed if on-road?

They do have telephones in prisons.

But the PCN procedure comes first and we need to see the correspondence.