Van driver is issued with 22 separate ULEZ fines after repeated TfL number plate error

Despite his two company vans being exempt, Bradley Wilkin was issued 22 separate Ultra low emissions zone (ULEZ) fines by Transport for London when they incorrectly thought his vehicles were too old to go free of charge.

Over the course of three years the fines amounted to £275 which were taken from Mr Wilkin’s Autopay account.

However both his vans were registered in the last four years, which means they’re exempt from the £12.50 daily charge.

Mr Wilkins has suffered huge frustration due to the issue, which occurred because TfL’s systems assumed one of the vans was a 2013 diesel model.

In reality, the van sports a private plate ‘BM13 SEC’, designed to represent Mr Wilkin’s company name, BMB Security.

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He said he had repeatedly contacted TfL about the issue without success, fearing he would accrue more charges after the zone was extended in October last year.

A TfL call centre issued him with a ticket number and said his case would be dealt with in 10 working days.

In the end Mr Wilkin said he took the decision to remove the new van with the BM13 SEC plate from TfL’s Auto Pay system and said he would wait to be issued with a £160 penalty charge each time he used it in the ULEZ.

He added: “I doubt if I will ever get the refund due from their errors.”

A TfL spokesperson said: ‘We apologise to Mr Wilkin for the incorrect charges he incurred as a result of an error in our database, and for the difficulty he had in resolving this issue.

“We are refunding all of the money and have corrected our records. We have also reminded our contractor Capita of the need to resolve any issues of this nature swiftly in future.

“The issue here was an error in our systems which meant the records hadn’t properly been updated.

“We have a process for updating the private number plates in our database. There was an error with the system with Mr Wilkin’s case.

“It’s something we deal with regularly to make sure they’re up to date, but there appears there was an error with this one.”