A COUPLE have been left horrified after bailiffs repossessed their £22,000 car as punishment for failing to pay a £35 bus gate fine while they were abroad.
Ravi Oak, 55, and Anu Apte, 53, unknowingly drove through a bus gate in their Mercedes C350E in Chelmsford, Essex, and then went to India for six months because of a family bereavement.
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Essex County Council sent a £35 penalty charge notice to the couple’s address in Colchester, Essex, after the incident in November 2022 but it was left unopened due to the couple being abroad.
The charge later doubled to £70 and, because Anu and Ravi were still not at their address to receive the penalty notice, repeated letters to their house were left unopened.
Around five months later, the couple’s friend – who has been checking on their house – discovered the car was missing from their garage – and went into the house to find the unopened letters.
The letters said that the vehicle, which is worth around £22,000, had been repossessed because the bus gate fine hadn’t been paid.
The car was removed by debt collectors Bristow and Sutor from the couple’s private carport at the request of Essex County Council – and subsequently sold off at an auction in Brentwood.
The couple are now considering taking Essex County Court because they do not believe that the notice was properly served.
Ravi said: “We feel cheated and we feel let down, because people have not followed the law.
“We did not receive the notice, so it was not properly served – this is an abuse of power.
“We need other people to know about what has happened and that it is morally wrong.”
In May 2023, Ravi searched the Mercedes’ registration plate online and found the car had been sold at auction for £10,500, half of its estimated value.
After two and a half years of legal wranglings, the couple have now said they are preparing to take a case to the civil court so they can win damages.
Anu said: “It’s a lot of emotional stress, that’s one thing.
“Obviously, money is another thing.
“And then the impact it had at the workplace as well – we become the target of criticism.
“People who didn’t know I was out of the country just think, ‘Why didn’t they pay it? Why couldn’t you just pay the fine?’
“The issue was not that – I wasn’t here and was unaware of it.
“We would have paid the fine if we were in the UK and had known about it.”
An Essex County Council spokesperson said: “Essex County Council always follows the legal process for contacting vehicle owners who contravene bus gates and collecting the fines incurred.
“Very rarely do these cases go as far as vehicles being removed in order to pay the fines – almost all vehicle owners pay before that point.
“The process involves five separate pieces of correspondence being sent to the vehicle owner typically and in this case over a four month period, giving the vehicle owner an opportunity to either pay or make representations/appeal.
“If the correspondence continues to be ignored or no response is received from the vehicle owner following hand-delivered correspondence and to the efforts made to make contact with the vehicle owner in person at the property, the vehicle may be removed.
“Essex County Council follows the National Standards in relation to enforcement, and we are not aware of any breach of standards in this case.
“Bus gates are in place to improve travel flow around towns and cities and any fines received by the Council are ringfenced according to legislation and reinvested to help improve public transport, roads and the transport network across Essex.
“They are about compliance rather than income, and success would be no fines at all.
“Due to ongoing legal proceedings, we are unable to comment further.”
What your rights are if you’re in a dispute with the council over a bus lane penalty?
According to London Tribunals, there are only four grounds on which you can appeal a bus lane Penalty Charge Notice:
- You were not the owner of the vehicle at the time the infringement occurred
- There was no breach of the bus lane because it was outside its hours of operation or the vehicle was exempt
- The person who was in control of your vehicle at the time was in control without your consent
- If the police are pursuing legal action against you for the breach, in which case the local authority does not impose a separate civil penalty
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