Driver given Ulez fine despite donating car to Ukraine
Charles Cooper says situation is Orwellian and would ‘rather go to prison’ than pay fee
Gareth Corfield 15 April 2024 • 10:03pm
A driver has been handed a Ulez fine despite donating his car to the Ukraine war effort last summer.
Charles Cooper, 65, drove his Volvo SUV across the Ukrainian border in August 2023.
Yet Transport for London (TfL) sent Mr Cooper, of Lymington in Hampshire, a series of fines after automated number plate recognition cameras (ANPR) allegedly picked up the car being driven through London in October.
TfL is chasing him for hundreds of pounds in penalties for non-payment through the courts even though the accountant showed that his car was given to Ukraine last year.
In a letter to The Telegraph, Mr Cooper said he has spent hundreds of pounds on lawyers after officials rejected his explanation that their automatic cameras had mistakenly identified the wrong car.
“I have already provided adequate information showing details of the export of this vehicle to the Ukrainian army, with associated paperwork,” he wrote.
The chartered accountant, a former chief executive of investment fund BRI Wealth Management, added: “I am not aware if the case has been abandoned.
“This situation is positively Orwellian. What sort of country are we living in?”
Mr Cooper said he would “rather go to prison” than pay a wrongfully issued fine.
He said his ordeal began when fixed penalty notices were sent late last year, which he did not immediately receive because he was travelling in Greece.
He came home in January to find letters from the transport authority had escalated into threats to take him to court for non-payment.
One picture sent to him by TfL of the alleged infringement showed “a very unclear photograph of the front of a Volvo which they claim was my number plate”, he said.
“It looks to me like [the letters] OKK, and they say it’s OKW which was my plate,” he added.
“But my car had been given to the Ukrainian army in August. I drove it over there.”
A letter sent by TfL to Mr Cooper and seen by The Telegraph said: “We have reviewed the vehicle image(s) and believe that the charge(s) have/has been raised correctly.”
The letter invited him to send proof that the Volvo was at a location outside the London charging zones on Oct 10 last year.
His car was delivered to Ukraine as part of a mercy mission by the 4Ukraine humanitarian aid group, which delivers surplus cars and medical supplies from the UK to the eastern European country.
Mr Cooper said: “I sent them those papers. I sent them a photograph of me handing the car over to my army contact who was actually a priest. And they ignored it.
“The last thing I got from them was that I was going to be sent to court... And bailiffs would be appointed, which was when I wrote to [TfL] and said, well, there’s no point in doing that, because I would rather go to prison than pay you anything.”
Photographs taken in August 2023 show Mr Cooper handing the grey Volvo over to Ukrainian representatives.
A TfL spokesman said: “We are investigating what has happened here. We will be speaking to Mr Cooper very soon.”
It comes as Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, remains locked in battle over sending cars to Ukraine, despite pledging in February that vehicles handed in under the Ulez scrappage scheme would be sent to the Eastern European country.
Richard Lofthouse, a volunteer representing the Car for Ukraine campaign, said that he had concerns over the speed with which vehicles were reaching Ukraine.
It came after Mark Harper, the Transport Secretary, suggested Mr Khan was blocking the exports after the former cited legal barriers when the idea was first put to him in 2023.
Under the conditions of the London ultra-low emission zone (Ulez), owners of polluting older cars, such as the Volvo XC90 driven to Ukraine by Mr Cooper, must pay £12.50 per day for driving inside the M25.
The London Congestion Charge, a £15-a-day tax, also applies for driving inside inner London.
It is not the first time TfL has been accused of wrongly giving drivers Ulez fines.
A government commissioner warned ministers last year that more than two million motorists a day could be wrongly identified for fines by Ulez or speed cameras.
Professor Fraser Sampson, the surveillance camera commissioner, said the ANPR camera network’s 3 per cent error rate for reading car number plates meant there were “significant risks” of penalty notices being wrongly issued to innocent motorists.
One driver who was wrongly fined was a plumber who fitted his company’s vans with customised number plates after TfL incorrectly assumed the vans were too old – and thus too polluting – to comply with Ulez.
Sam Reading bought four registration plates that created the words “GAS JOB” for his company vehicles to help promote a distinct brand for his business.
Yet the registrations were originally issued between 2002 and 2008 and so were classified by TfL as not Ulez compliant.
SIR – I have been accused of driving a Volvo illegally in the Ulez area on October 10 last year.
The photographs provided do not clearly indicate the full registration. However, more pertinently, on that date I was in Greece. Furthermore the Volvo in question was given, by me, to the Ukrainian army on August 18 2023. The DVLA has this recorded as an exported vehicle.
I have endeavoured to inform Transport for London of these facts but have only been met with greater threats. The latest was that I was to be taken to court in Northampton within 21 days of January 17. I am not aware of the result of this but have yet to be arrested for contempt of court.
I have already provided adequate information showing details of the export of this vehicle to the Ukrainian army, with associated paperwork.
Latterly I have been obliged to put this matter in the hands of my solicitors, as it was the last resort to avoid TfL’s threat to appoint bailiffs. This has cost me well over £300 but has caused TfL to cease communication, though not to admit any form of culpability. I am not aware if the case has been abandoned.
This situation is positively Orwellian. What sort of country are we living in?
Charles Cooper
Lymington, Hampshire
Driver handed London Ulez fine for car parked in Manchester
String of motorists come forward over payment demands for vehicles that were not theirs
Patrick Sawer, Senior News Reporter 16 April 2024 • 4:34pm
Drivers are being given Ulez fines after cameras wrongly identified their vehicles as being in the charge zone.
Motorists have contacted The Telegraph to report how they were sent fines for non-payment of the Ulez charge in London, despite a different vehicle being captured on the system’s cameras.
In one case the owner was sent a fine relating to non-payment of Ulez for his Ford Mondeo, when Transport for London’s cameras had captured a Nissan SUV.
At the time, the Mondeo was parked hundreds of miles away in Greater Manchester.
The cases emerged after Charles Cooper, 65, was handed a Ulez fine despite donating his car to the Ukraine war effort last summer.
Transport for London (TfL) sent Mr Cooper, of Lymington in Hampshire, a series of fines after automated number plate recognition cameras (ANPR) allegedly picked up the car being driven through London in October.
TfL has since been chasing him for hundreds of pounds in penalties for non-payment through the courts even though the accountant showed that his car was given to Ukraine last year.
After reading about Mr Cooper’s case, Arthur Bailey, a retired designer from Greater Manchester reported that a similar thing had happened with his son’s Ford Mondeo.
He 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.
‘You’d think they’d have better things to do’
“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 Mr Bailey’s number plate had been cloned and used on another car, resulting in him being charged. It has since waived the fine.
Another motorist reported that his vehicle has been charged for entering London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone after its personalised number plate was apparently mistaken for one containing similar numbers and letters.
On one occasion last month Hugh Blanchard’s antique silver Mazda, which has the registration plate 444AA, was charged for driving in St John’s Wood, north west London, when at the time it was parked on his driveway in the south London suburb of Bromley.
When he looked at the photographic evidence supplied by TFL, Mr Blanchard, 64, realised the camera appeared to have captured another vehicle that happened to have 444AA as part of its registration number.
On further investigation he noticed the same car also appeared to have been confused with his own two days earlier, this time after being photographed driving through Mill Hill, in North London.
‘My car was sitting on my drive’
“I use auto-pay for my car, and so this confusion over the number plates means I’m getting automatically charged for a vehicle that isn’t mine,” said Mr Blanchard, who works in IT.
“It’s extremely annoying. I know it’s not my car because it was sitting on my drive on both occasions that it was charged for being in the Ulez zone.
“I wonder if others are getting this problem with their cars being charged when they are still in their garage?”
TfL said that Mr Blanchard’s car had been charged by mistake because the correct vehicle’s number plate was slightly obscured when it was photographed by the Ulez camera.
A TfL spokesman said on Tuesday: “After a review of Mr Cooper’s case it is clear that the charge was issued in error. We apologise for any distress caused and have cancelled the outstanding charge.
“We have got procedures to deal with these issues and where people have been charged incorrectly they will be refunded,” said the spokesman.
Ulez errors
SIR – I have an almost antique silver Mazda with an unusual number plate that has been identified by the Ulez system.
It turns out that a black Audi is being mistaken for my vehicle. I wonder if others are having this problem, resulting in their cars being charged even though they are still in the garage.
Hugh Blanchard
Bromley, Kent
SIR – Charles Cooper’s letter (“Orwellian Ulez threats”, April 16) illustrates how inept the system is.
My son received a penalty charge. The details and registration number of his vehicle, a 2003 Ford Mondeo, were correct. However, the vehicle in the accompanying photograph – the “proof” – was clearly different, possibly a Nissan SUV and certainly not my son’s car (which had never been within 100 miles of London).
As in Mr Cooper’s case, Transport for London would not accept this. He had to photograph his vehicle and send copies to the Ulez agents before they accepted they were wrong and withdrew the penalty. Who controls such an obviously flawed operation?
Arthur Bayley
Tyldesley, Lancashire
SIR – I am reminded of the action TfL took against me over Congestion Charge fines – which I had in fact paid – involving Northampton court threats, bailiff visits and so on.
I counter-claimed compensation for the distress caused and won thousands of pounds. I did this on my own, with no solicitor. My advice is to go for it.
John Wallace
London SW18