Drivers mistakenly issued £4 million in fines at Dartford Crossing

Motorists have been left in limbo after they were slapped with Dartford Crossing fines – despite never using the M25 crossing.

Drivers were left confused after receiving a fine for using the River Thames crossing at the border of Kent and Essex – although they had not been there.

In total, £4,000,000 worth of Dartford Crossing fines were mistakenly given to drivers in 12 months.

National Highways was forced to cancel 59,007 penalty charge notices (PCNs) in the year after it switched to a new provider to handle payments for the crossing, figures obtained by the PA news agency reveal.

Cars have been mistakenly identified by ANPR cameras at Dartford (Picture: PA)

In the previous 12 months, the highways authority had cancelled 3,595 PCNs. 

The cancelled PCNs were worth £4,100,000 as each was £70 and reduced to £35 if paid within 14 days.

Conduent, a private US company providing digital operations, was given a £150 million contract by National Highways to manage the crossing payments from July 28, 2023.

However, after Conduent took over, drivers began facing issues at Dartford Crossing which consists of a bridge and two tunnels.

There were instances of motorists being fined or charged when a vehicle with a similar register plate to their own used the crossing.

Others were unable to make payments and manage accounts.

National Highways said it has ‘resolved the issues.’

Use of the crossing between 6am and 10pm incurs a payment called Dart Charge.

The payments – ranging from £2.50 for cars to £6 for lorries – must be paid by midnight the day after the crossing, with payments options such as online accounts, telephone and post available.

But if the payment is not made, PCNs are issued for vehicle detected by the automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras.

‘They don’t care if they make a mistake’

Several drivers were caught in a Kafkaesque nightmare after receiving a mystery fine and struggling to resolve it.

Dr Jenny Dunne, 64, from north London, was charged 34 times on her Dart Charge account in the seven months to late April for crossings she did not make.

Instead, the cameras had incorrectly identified a number plate similar to hers – it had a 3 instead of a 1.

Dr Dunne tried to call up the Dart Charge contact centre – but she struggled to get it resolved, forcing her to spend time and energy in the process. 

She said: ‘I had no idea what was happening. At the beginning I got quite upset. I thought my number plate had been cloned so I contacted the police. It turned out the cameras were faulty.

The Dartford Crossing was meant to be free after the construction debt was paid off, but this never happened (Picture: Getty Images)

‘It’s taken an awful lot of my time and wasted a lot of my energy. I rang them so many times.

‘I never felt like they were treating it urgently even though it was happening so frequently.

‘They’re very unforgiving if you make a mistake, but they don’t care if they make a mistake. They’ve never properly apologised.’

National Highways said it has apologised to her since being contacted by the news agency.

Another frustrated driver, Sarah Rodwell-Dodsworth, from Ispwich, Suffolk, said she was left feeling like ‘they want to catch you out’ after having an issue with her payment card.

The 37-year-old said she was fined twice in January due to the payment card registered with her Dart Charge account to automatically pay for crossing was removed.

She had been unaware that crossing users were required to re-validate payment cards when Conduent took over the payments’ contract.

Sarah said: ‘We had an account set up, there was no reason for the card to be removed.

‘It’s quite frustrating. I’ve never had a fine [for the Dartford Crossing] until this occasion.

‘In our opinion, we were trying to be law-abiding citizens paying the toll as required, and were punished off the back of that.

‘It almost feels like they want to catch you out.’ 

It comes after drivers were hit with mystery Dartford Crossing fines this summer, including a headteacher from Bury, Greater Manchester, who was fined twice.

How did National Highways respond?

The busy crossing sees more than 55 million journeys each year. Around two million PCNs are issued for non-payment of the Dart Charge.

National Highways said in a statement: ‘There were technical issues with the transition to the new service providers, which resulted in an increased number of PCNs issued and an increase in cancelled PCNs.

‘We regret that some customers have experienced issues when making payments and managing their accounts following the transition to the new Dart Charge service providers.

‘We understand that anything associated with finances can be stressful, and we apologise for the inconvenience that these customers have faced.

‘In the minority of circumstances where PCNs are issued in error, the charge will be cancelled as soon as a customer contacts us to let us know.’

It said that the issues have been resolved and that errors have reduced to ‘less than 1% of all PCNs issued.’

Conduent declined to comment when Metro approached it.

Dartford Crossing was supposed to be free by the end of 2003 after the debt to build the bridge was paid off, the government promised in 1999.

However, this changed in 2001 when the government backtracked on the announcement.

Fees were increased in 2014 the Dart Charge system was brought in – despite the debt being repaid in 2002.

David Wilson