Motorist stuck in C-charge nightmare as TfL cameras mistake bus for his Mercedes

A motorist has been wrongly charged thousands of pounds in congestion charges — because Transport for London cameras keep mistaking a bus for his car.

Leon Grant set up a direct debit with TfL via its auto pay system three years ago so that he would pay £10.50 every time he drove into central London during the week. He now rarely drives into the congestion charge zone but is still being charged up to £200 per month.

It was only after reporting the wrong charges to TfL for more than two years that officials realised their cameras had been unable to distinguish between the numberplate on his Mercedes and one belonging to a TfL bus.

Mr Grant’s personalised number plate is LJG6, which TfL says is a “very similar registration” to one on a bus, which includes the combination LJ66. He said: “I kept getting these bills every month for £100 or £200 and I thought, ‘This is bizarre, I haven’t been in the congestion zone this month’.

“Sometimes my statement says I’ve done 10 trips into the city, other months it’s apparently 20 — but it’s never me.”

Mr Grant, an accountant, set up the auto pay direct debit in 2015, when he would often drive into central London from his home in East Finchley. Auto pay, which is £10 a year to join, allows TfL to record the number of times that a vehicle travels into the congestion zone between 7am and 8pm on weekdays. It then sends the driver a monthly bill, which is paid as a direct debit.

Almost immediately after signing up, Mr Grant noticed he was being charged for trips he had not taken. He complained and TfL sent him a refund, but the erroneous payments continued.

At first, Mr Grant thought his vehicle had been cloned and contacted police. But, after two years of refunds, TfL realised the anomaly. Officials put him on a “watch list” in January, meaning that charges should be checked before being issued, but they kept on coming.

He said: “Each time they apologise for any inconvenience, but then they do it again the next month and the month after that. How many other people have had to do his if their cameras cannot distinguish between a G and a 6? If I’d not set up the direct debit, they would have taken out a county court judgment against me for not paying.”

In a letter to Mr Grant in January, a TfL representative wrote: “I can confirm the vehicle being charged is not a clone vehicle. The vehicle being charged for the journeys is a bus with a very similar registration mark, which is LJ66, and that is being charged on your CC Auto Pay as it recognises the vehicle as LJG6.”

A TfL spokesman said that of the 10,720,579 journeys recorded in the zone last year from vehicles on auto pay or fleet accounts, 145 charges were refunded due to a registration error.

Paul Cowperthwaite, General Manager of Road User Charging at TfL, said: “I apologise to Mr Grant for any distress or inconvenience caused. We have cancelled all erroneous charges and are investigating why this has occurred.”