Thousands of drivers wake up to £180 fine despite proof they are 'exempt'

A Ulez error has seen "thousands" of drivers, motorists and road users slapped with massive penalties despite being exempt from charges. As many as 8,000 drivers have been wrongly hit with penalty charges for entering Ulez and Congestion Charge areas, despite being exempt from fees.

A Freedom of Information request to Transport for London revealed that 7,563 incorrect penalty notices were issued to cab drivers due to an IT glitch. Drivers can be fined £180 if they are falling foul of the rules, which are the brainchild of Labour Party Mayor Sadiq Khan.

Steve McNamara, general secretary of the LTDA, told the Telegraph their phone systems were overwhelmed by concerned drivers unable to reach TfL. "Our phone systems are in meltdown because our members cannot get in touch with TFL. Thousands of my members have been affected by this. We've had over 500 calls this morning alone," McNamara said.

READ MORE:Drivers of these popular family models will see car tax double from April

READ MORE:Fords and Land Rovers among cars facing huge £2,745 tax hike from April - full list

READ MORE UK faces -7C snow with 'all' of country at risk and 'nowhere spared'

The taxi body reported that some drivers, worried about escalating fines, were considering paying the penalties just to "make them go away". Mr McNamara added: "Members are struggling to get through to TFL so they're all ringing us and consequently our phones are jumping off the hook... this should not have happened."

In a statement, TfL said: "We are aware that some taxi drivers have received PCNs incorrectly due to a system issue. We have written to vehicle owners to confirm they do not need to take any action, and that any PCNs that have been incorrectly issued will be cancelled."

It comes six weeks after a cyber attack saw the transport authority disabling large parts of its public-facing web services and contacting 5,000 people to say their credit card details had been stolen. Mr McNamara explained that TfL’s Ulez and Congestion Charge databases have whitelists of licensed black cabs, ensuring that taxi drivers – who are exempt from the two taxes – are not wrongly fined.