I've received five ULEZ charges from TfL... but I haven't been to London: CRANE ON THE CASE

My wife and I occasionally drive from our home in Suffolk to London. 

To sort out paying the congestion and ultra-low emission zone (ULEZ) charges, we registered our car with Transport for London and set up the 'autopay' feature, which recognises when your car enters these zones and debits the money from your bank account. 

A ULEZ charge recently popped up on my bank statement, which I thought odd as I hadn't visited the capital for a long time. I checked the online account. 

I realised I had been charged the £12.50 ULEZ charge five times in the past year - on days that I hadn't even been in London. 

On further investigation, I found images of the car in question entering the ULEZ zone. 

It turned out TfL's cameras had misread a letter G for a C in the number plate and the car pictured was not mine at all. 

I appealed the charges but only two were refunded. What can I do?  M.S., Suffolk

Helen Crane, This is Money's consumer champion replies: Technology like this is supposed to make life easier, saving drivers the hassle of remembering to log in to the TfL website and pay the charge every time they visit the capital. 

It works via a system of cameras, which clock registration points at different areas around the ULEZ zone and report this back to TfL, which issues the daily charge.  

The penalty for forgetting to pay is steep, at £90 if you pay within 14 days or £180 within 28. 

However, your case shows that just like us humans, automated systems can also make mistakes. 

This car and yours were the same colour and from the same marque, but that was where the similarity ended. Yours was an estate and the other, a 4x4. 

The problem was that the registration plates had just one letter that was different.  

The other driver must have thought they were on a run of good luck, to evade the cameras not once but five times. 

Your vehicle wasn't anywhere near London on any of these dates, in one case it was even out of the country.  

But you were charged £12.50 on each occasion, failing to notice the relatively small amount coming out of your bank account. 

Some would argue that drivers should check their TfL accounts regularly to ensure no irregularities.

Indeed, when you raised this with TfL, it responded that 'Under the Auto Pay terms and conditions, account holders are responsible for monitoring their account activity, reviewing journeys and charges applied, and notifying us if a journey has been recorded incorrectly.'

But given you hadn't driven in London during the period in question, I don't think you could be reasonably expected to do so. 

'So, if you don’t pick up their mistake early enough, they are saying that you have no recourse?' you said. 'I feel that this is unreasonable.' 

Once you did notice, you disputed the charges through the official process. However, as TfL has a 90-day limit for doing so, you were only able to get your money back for the final two. 

The others had happened too far in the past. 

You looked into whether you could attempt a chargeback through your credit card provider, but this wasn't possible as the ULEZ charge is paid as a direct debit. 

You also sought to appeal to the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman, the final stage for complaints from the public about local authorities. 

However,  you were unable to do so, as you were not able to obtain a final deadlock letter from TfL.

Having hit a wall, you got in touch with me.  

When I contacted TfL, it said its 90-day limit was in place to make sure it does not keep hold of vehicle data for longer than necessary under data protection laws. It deletes images of vehicles after that time.  

However, in light of the circumstances it arranged for all charges to be refunded to you, totalling £37.50.

It also took steps that will hopefully make sure another rogue charge isn't taken from your account, adding your vehicle to a list of number plates that have been misread. 

This means camera images are manually checked by a member of staff to prevent mix-ups.