The PCN, which relates to an apparent journey across the Dartford Crossing on September 24, identifies a mismatched vehicle with an incorrect registration number.
According to the recipient of the fine, the PCN issued contains a “ridiculously microscopic image” of a vehicle and a plate number.
The motorist, a retired police sergeant who wishes to remain anonymous, pointed out Dart Charge’s apparent misinterpretation of the letter ‘O’ as ‘D’.
He said that the error raises concerns about the accuracy of the tolling system, as the PCN not only misidentifies the vehicle but also features an image of an entirely different make and colour car to his own.
He explained: “It is clear that the camera has misinterpreted that registration number and everything else has gone from there.
“At that point onwards, it has been automated. They haven’t even got my registration correct, and therefore, they haven’t got my vehicle correct, and everything else has blossomed out from that.”
The man had been across the Dartford Crossing once almost a decade ago and did not even use the same vehicle as the one he owns now.
He told the News Shopper: “How can they embarrass themselves with a document quoting a registration that doesn’t even relate to the photograph within the same document?”
He also questioned the processing time: “Why has it been sent a full almost three months after the date in question?”
He felt frustrated that it was left to the motorist to invest personal time in correcting an error made by Dart Charge.
The motorist reported being 59th in the queue and decided to give up on trying to speak to an actual person due to the wait and has decided to not go through the process of formally appealing as it is their mistake.
He was left questioning why the tolling agency does not cross-check information before issuing penalty notices.
The former police officer said that the wording of the letters was quite threatening. He added: “I’ve got to pay £37.50. Oh, and by the way, if it’s not paid within 28 days, the charge increases to £105.
“If they’re going to send them out to potentially old people, vulnerable people, people that may or may not have learning difficulties – it better be right.”
He emphasized the problems of errors like that, drawing parallels with the responsibility associated with police work and the potential consequences if such inaccuracies were made in a law enforcement context.
He told the News Shopper: “Let’s imagine that I’m performing my job, and we have an extensive amount of CCTV footage— God knows how many hours— to review in real-time, searching for potential suspects.
“If put a particular vehicle under observation and it is stopped and detained because the occupants are suspected of something.
“What if I had been negligent or didn’t cross-check the information properly? If that information leads to arrests and detentions, it turns out that I had done a shoddy, idiotic job—no one bothered to verify my work, and there was no collaboration to ensure that I was providing accurate information, and someone ended up getting wrongly apprehended.”
A spokesperson for National Highways said: “This person contacted us in December and the matter was resolved with the incorrectly served PCN cancelled.
“DART Charge was introduced to ease congestion by removing the need to stop at a barrier. The misidentification of vehicles is an unusual occurrence among the 55 million using the Dartford Crossing each year.”
