I have been reading an article on This is Money and thought you may be able to help out my uncle, Mr R, who has a £14,000 fine pending with Dartford Crossing.
Last year, he moved house from London to Kent, and crossed the Dartford Crossing multiple times.
During this time, his account did not automatically add more funds to pay for these crossings, and as a result, he ended up with almost 80 PCNs.
However, these were sent to his old address, so he was unaware of the fines.
Stacking up: Prepay customers are charged £2 per crossing, while those paying after the fact will shell out £2.50 each time
Despite missing the letters, my uncle agreed with Dart Charge to pay £166 to settle the crossings, but he was unable to log into his account to make the payments, despite contacting them about this.
On top of this, the letter requesting this payment had a deadline that was before the request was even received.
Dart Charge is now saying that he is beyond the point of paying for just the crossings, and is now pursuing him for £14,000 in fines.
He doesn’t know what else to do other than declare himself bankrupt or try to get a loan for £14,000. We are at a stage where bailiffs are on his case day to day.
Harvey Dorset of This is Money replies: Moving house can be stressful at the best of times, so I can imagine your uncle’s relief at having an automatic payment account for the Dartford Crossing, especially as he was travelling over the crossing multiple times through his moving period.
The crossing went toll booth free a decade ago, meaning regular users have the option to have automatic payments taken if registered – or they must make one-off payments on its website.
Oh, the wonders of modern technology. Not having to pay for the crossing each time would give him one less thing to worry about during this stressful period. Or so he would have thought, and understandably so.
However, the opposite has been the case. Your uncle was slapped with a massive fine that he can’t afford to shell out for, and has had repeated attempts to solve the problem left unanswered, to the point that bailiffs are turning up on his doorstep on a daily basis.
To make matters worse, he had agreed to settle the charges with Dart Charge, but found himself unable to do so even when he tried. According to the evidence you sent us, your uncle did not receive the settlement request until 1 August last year, despite the payment deadline being 12 July.
Unsurprisingly, this has caused your uncle a massive amount of stress, and has forced him consider declaring bankruptcy.
In fact, the process of trying to appeal the fine, on the grounds that he could not access his account and therefore could not pay the settlement, has dragged on for months.
Free flowing: Toll booths at the Dartford Crossing were replaced by the ‘Dart charge’ in 2014
Meanwhile, multiple attempts to contact Dart Charge were left with no reply, before he was informed that the situation was now in the hands of bailiffs.
I contacted National Highways, the Government agency responsible for the Dart Charge, and explained your uncle’s situation.
I am pleased to say that as a result, National Highways agreed to offer you a new settlement of £195, amounting to £2.50 per crossing.
Whilst this is, of course, higher than the original £166, it is a world away from the £14,000 that he had desperately been searching for a way to repay without plunging himself into debt or bankruptcy.
A National Highways spokesman said: National Highways received Mr R’s challenge against the PCNs issued to him on 27 June 2023, however the timeframe in which to make a challenge had passed.
Despite the late challenge, National Highways contacted Mr R with an offer to settle the PCNs at Dart Charge account rate (£2.00) subject to him topping up his Dart Charge account with sufficient balance to cover the cost of the outstanding crossings.
Mr R was given until 12 July 2023 to accept this offer however no contact was received, and this offer expired.
A total of 78 PCN’s have been issued to Mr R for unpaid crossings of which Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) IK******* was escalated to the enforcement agents, Marston’s Ltd. A payment was made of £426.50 on 16 June 2023 settling this PCN.
National Highways advise the outstanding PCNs have now been placed on hold.
Due to the technical difficulties Mr R experienced, National Highways has taken the decision to offer Mr R the opportunity to settle the outstanding PCNs at the road user charge of £2.50 per crossing and to issue a refund to him for the payment made against PCN IK*******. National Highways is unable to offer Mr R to pay for the crossings at the account holders rate at £2.00 per crossing.
The payment of £195 to settle Mr R’s outstanding PCN’s can be made either online or by contacting Dart Charge customer services on 0300 1313 120 between the hours of 8am and 8pm. An email confirming this offer has been issued to Mr R on 07 May 2024.
Harvey Dorset adds: This is Money has been reporting on outrageous Dart Charge fines for the past seven years.
We’ve even had one for £30,000 – and we’ll continue to fight your corner over these escalated fines which we believe to be unjustifiable.
Have you had an huge Dartford Crossing fine? Get in touch: [email protected]
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