A motorist was fined nearly £11,000 for driving his French rental car in London’s ultra-low emission zone on a three-day trip to the UK, despite the fact the vehicle met the environmental standards to enter the Ulez for nothing.
Christian Ducarre received four penalty charge notices (PCNs) after falling foul of a little-known requirement under which foreign vehicles must be registered with Transport for London (TfL) or else be deemed non-compliant by default.
He is one of many EU drivers who have been sent PCNs, some of them totalling thousands of pounds, even though their vehicles comply with EU emissions standards.
The Ulez requires drivers of older, more polluting vehicles to pay £12.50 a day to enter central London, or face a fine of £180, which is halved if paid within 14 days. Vehicles registered in the UK do not have to be separately enrolled in the scheme to prove they are compliant.
In Ducarre’s case, his fines were higher because his hire car was also mistakenly classed as a heavy diesel vehicle and penalised under the separate low emissions zone (Lez) that covers lorries, vans, buses, coaches and minibuses travelling in most of Greater London. Lez fines are between £500 and £2,000 a day, depending on the vehicle’s weight, and rise if not paid within 28 days.