Hounslow - Builder received 51 fines in a day landing him with £6,000 bill

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Builder received 51 driving fines in a day landing him with £6,000 bill

Sam Courtney-Guy
Tuesday 22 Mar 2022 1:43 pm


The huge wadge of fines fell through John Barrett’s letterbox after a mix-up over his address

A driver was fined 51 times totalling £6,000 for using a residents-only road despite having a permit.

John Barrett, 54, from Chiswick, west London, received all the fines in a single day after a mix-up saw official letters repeatedly sent to the wrong address.

The charges had accrued every time he drove up the road to the gym over a five-month period.

He was doubly shocked as he had received seven penalties last year for the trip and replied to reach one explaining he had a permit, claiming he never heard back.

After challenging the latest raft of fines, he discovered Hounslow Council required permit-holders to send a letter asking for a specific exemption to be registered on their system.

He said: ‘The cost to the tax payer must have been massive – each notice has three screenshots of my car.

‘The time it takes them to print out those screenshots and put the letter in the envelope would cost a fortune.

‘All they had to do was put my registration into their computer and they’d see I had a permit. This has taken so much of my time.’


John received 51 fines for driving his Tesla down Hartington Road to reach his local gym


Hounslow Council forced him to reply to every single letter one-by-one

The bill has since been cancelled but John is demanding the council overhaul its system to spare other lower-income drivers who could struggle to fight back against similar errors.

‘It’s ridiculous, no warning or anything. No letter to say you’ve been caught on camera driving on this road and we don’t think you should be. It’s incredible. Imagine if I was someone really vulnerable.’

Hounslow Council accused the company which leases John’s car of wrongly providing an address down the road, yet admitted it sent further letters to a neighbour despite insteaad of replying to John’s emails.

A spokesperson said: ‘When the resident emailed in their resident/permit status, a staff member cancelled their PCNs and sent a letter outlining that they needed to apply for their exemption.


The 54-year-old accused the council of a massive waste of resources

‘However, this letter was yet again sent to the wrong address. Subsequent fines were then issued as they still hadn’t applied for their exemption (as the letter had gone to the wrong address). All fines have now been cancelled.’

John added: ‘What a waste of money. Two in five people are living in poverty here, and so many of us are worried about how to pay the bills at the moment.

‘It’s such a stress and it’s not okay to give people no warning, and I have 28 days to pay but they get 56 days just to reply to an email.

‘It’s maddening. What are they doing that they need 56 days to write an email? I respond to over 50 emails a day.’

https://metro.co.uk/2022/03/22/chiswick-driver-sent-51-fines-in-a-day-landing-him-with-6000-bill-16320350/