Dart Charge fine drivers tell of bailiff ‘harassment’

Rachel Canning was nearly to take her son to highschool when the doorbell rang at her east London dwelling.

There, on the porch, was a bailiff appearing on behalf of the Dartford Crossing in search of lots of of kilos over allegedly unpaid charges for the £2.50 toll, referred to as the Dart Cost.

Rachel is one in every of quite a few individuals who declare to have confronted “intimidation” and “harassment” by debt collectors over Dart Cost fines they declare had been issued in error.

Some drivers who use the arterial bridge – connecting M25 stretches in Kent and Essex throughout the River Thames – have instructed the BBC they’ve confronted account issues and hefty penalties.

Nationwide Highways, which oversees Dart Cost, has defended its dealing with of the instances and says it’s working exhausting to “deal with buyer issues”.

Regardless of having an automatic top-up account to cowl the crossing payment, Rachel, who lives in Hornchurch, acquired six penalty notices within the previous months.

4 fines had been overturned. However when she challenged the opposite two – which had not appeared on her on-line account – she acquired no response from Dart and assumed they too had been cancelled.

Then, on 20 June, she acquired a “discover of enforcement” from the Dart contractor, CDER Group, demanding £385 in relation to these two penalties.

Inside every week, and regardless of difficult the fines and sending proof to the Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC), a bailiff arrived demanding £620 and threatening to clamp her automobile if she didn’t pay.

The expertise left her son “very upset”, she says.

“The man was fairly abrupt, fairly pushy, fairly impolite.”

Doorbell digicam footage exhibits Rachel telling the bailiff the fines had been being challenged and exhibiting him her accomplished on-line varieties.

“I spent 5 hours going between Dart Cost, the TEC and CDER Group to see what my choices had been,” she says. “None of them would take duty.”

The bailiff continued contacting her.

“He was harassing me the entire time, texting me, phoning me,” she says, claiming he instructed her each textual content he despatched and cellphone name he made could be added to her debt.

Discovering his behaviour “very threatening” and “intimidating”, Rachel paid as much as make it cease.

Though she has since had £620 refunded, she has not acquired an apology.

CDER Group, which is one in every of three enforcement companies contracted by Dart Cost, says it didn’t seize her son on physique worn video.

A spokesperson stated that when an agent is assigned to a case their job is “to execute a warrant by full fee or removing of products” which entails making “additional contact with the debtor” till fee is made.

Aneta Wasilewska can see the Dartford Crossing from her flat in Grays, Essex.

Regardless of signing as much as the resident low cost scheme, which permits 50 free crossings a yr and 20p per crossing thereafter, she went 20p into the purple in July final yr.

Her account was then closed with out her information.

She unwittingly racked up 39 fines which didn’t arrive till late November.

In March 2024 Dart Cost revoked the fines and emailed her – she now had seven days to pay £97.50 for the unpaid crossings.

Aneta didn’t obtain the e-mail as a result of she was at a household funeral in Poland.

Efforts to resolve the matter with Dart Cost on her return failed.

Then got here the CDER Group bailiff, who visited on 1 Jun saying she owed £7,800 and her automobile could be taken if she didn’t pay some cash.

She paid £1,500 by card and agreed a fee plan of £500 a month.

Aneta says the state of affairs brought about “enormous stress and nervousness”.

Her MP Jen Craft stepped in and wrote to Nationwide Highways. Inside every week the fines and bailiff charges had been cancelled.

However Aneta says she “by no means acquired an apology” from Dart.

CDER Group says it has reviewed the case and refunded her an extra £290.

Bailiffs for the Dart Cost have collected £112m from 2.3m penalty notices previously 5 years, figures obtained by the BBC reveal.

In 2023, the year in which Dart Charge switched its private operator, one in 5 fined drivers had been referred to bailiffs.

Through the first 9 months of 2024, greater than 2.7 million fines had been issued by Dart Cost and 423,000 instances handed to enforcement companies – the next quantity than in any of the earlier 5 years.

Enforcement company charges are set by law and state how a lot may be charged at every stage of the method.

Regardless of having an automated top-up account for commutes between Kent and London, firefighter Andy Coote’s Dart Cost issues lasted greater than ten months.

He was initially unaware he had acquired any fines as a result of, for private causes, his submit was being redirected to his daughter’s home.

By early Could, he realised he had 34 fines. He paid them and contacted Dart Cost to make sure there have been “no extra within the system”.

However two days later he acquired an enforcement discover from CDER Group demanding £875 for 10 unpaid PCNs.

Two extra penalties adopted and, together with bailiff charges, Andy was instructed he owed £2,500.

He arrange a month-to-month fee plan to attempt to clear the invoice.

Andy, who admits he isn’t “good with computer systems”, says his boss was “superb” and took trip to assist him problem every of the excellent fines.

The stress of the Dart fines was “10 instances extra” tense than his experiences as a firefighter, he says.

He accuses the CDER Group of utilizing “intimidating” practices.

“I used to get 4 or 5 texts a day, the primary one usually being at 06:00,” he says, including the messages would warn him of “excellent funds”.

“Then quarter-hour later the identical factor, you get that 4 instances a day, day-after-day,” he provides.

CDER Group says it acquired “10 separate directions” from Dart Cost to implement warrants on Mr Coote which contributed to the variety of letters and texts he acquired.

Nationwide Highways says in every of the instances highlighted the particular person both didn’t have an energetic account once they made the crossing, or the fee technique on the account had not been up to date, which led to the penalties.

A spokesperson stated “virtually 95% of crossings are paid on time” including that “enforcement brokers are solely used as a final resort”.