A man from Blackpool, Dave Benson, travels regularly around the country as part of his job doing house moves. Fines and speeding tickets are a hazard of the job, but he was left very confused when he started receiving letters from Bristol City Council with fines for driving illegally in one of the city's bus lanes.
He was left confused because the 49-year-old claims that he has not been to Bristol in at least three years. However, letters from Bristol City Council said that he was snapped driving in the new Baldwin Street bus lane, by Broad Quay.
Dave has now received six of these unexpected letters overall, with a £30 attached to each. Exasperated by the situation, Dave, who runs a removal company, just could not understand what was going on.
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Dave had not only not been in Bristol at the time of the incidents, but the vehicle in the image (a white Mercedes) also wasn't his, with a completely different person behind the wheel. He very quickly realised that there had been a mistake, but rectifying it proved rather difficult.
He emailed Bristol City Council, telling them he believed their camera to be in the wrong place, catching an "N when it's actually an M" in the number plate, but he says they never got back to him.
Speaking to The Mirror, Dave explained: "I first started getting these letters around three months ago. Of course, I was shocked. Also found it humorous, as any idiot can see it's wrong.
"After the fourth one I rang the council - the phone number is impossible to find by the way - and the guy told me I had to reply to each one and basically prove it isn't me! I work 90 to 100 hours a week, now I have to deal with these muppets. The cameras are clearly in the wrong place causing M's to look like N's".
Dave says he's "never had anything like this before", and claims that "dealing with Bristol City Council is like talking to robots". He says that he has also struggled with the council's website as he feels "the page where you contest the fine is so old [he] can't even upload pictures from [his] phone".
He added: "I'd love to track the white Mercedes down. We all know right from wrong, this guy obviously doesn't care or is just oblivious and so shouldn't be on the road. I've already given Bristol Council a few choice words".
A spokesperson for Bristol City Council said: “We have reviewed CCTV and the same number plate as Mr. Benson’s van was picked up on a car using a Bristol bus lane. Therefore, it is possible the number plate has been cloned, which Mr. Benson should report to police.
"We are cancelling all the fines that were issued to Mr. Benson".
According to a report from the RAC in January, complaints about cloned registration plates are known to be increasing.
A total of 1,105 drivers contacted the DVLA back in March 2020 to object to their vehicle being wrongly linked to driving offences, nearly twice as many as the 656 complaints reported in April 2019.
Have you had any unexpected fines, or do you have dashcam footage of bad driving that you want to share? Email ben.bloch@reachplc.com
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