I’ve had 40 London penalty notices — even though I’ve never driven there

Dear Sally

I LIVE on Merseyside and have never driven in London. But over the past few years I have had more than 40 penalty notice charges for driving offences in the capital, including for not paying the Dartford Crossing toll. I have had four in the past two weeks alone and each time I must send detailed proof that I am not at fault. I think someone in London has cloned my licence plate. I have informed the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), the police, the fraud squad and my MP, with no success. Can you help to resolve this problem?

J.M., Merseyside.

Your battle over unfairly issued penalty notices is clearly driving you round the bend. When you tell the DVLA that you did not run these up, it accepts what you say and you are not charged. But, this takes a lot of time and effort on your part.

You worry that the only exit from this roundabout of neverending disputes appears be to change your car or number plate. I admit that would be extreme, so I asked the DVLA to investigate.

A few days later the department told me it had found that the other vehicle causing you this penalty nightmare is not a clone but has a genuine plate with a number configuration that looks similar to yours.

Although the DVLA did not confirm the details, I suspect cameras used by traffic organisations to catch offenders may be mixing up a zero in your registration possibly with the letter ‘o’ on the other driver’s plate.

The DVLA cannot stop such penalty notices landing on your doormat, but it has now provided you (and the other car’s owner) with a special letter that outlines all the information that you need to prove your innocence to the relevant authorities.

You can send this to any enforcement agency that issues you a penalty notice in error. This may not put a halt to the hassle completely, but should enable you to have any unfair penalties overturned more speedily.

You initially thought your plate had been cloned. This is when crooks either pinch genuine plates or purchase copies online from unauthorised suppliers, then attach them to a vehicle, often of the same model and colour.

This allows them to break speed limits, park without paying or even use the vehicle to commit serious crimes — without facing penalties — unless the police happen to catch them in the act.

Although the DVLA said your plate had not been cloned, the effect was the same when it came to the deluge of penalty notices.

Simon Williams, head of policy at motoring organisation RAC, says: ‘normally, multiple fines relating to one vehicle would indicate it has been cloned.

‘If you receive an incorrect penalty, contact the issuing authority and explain your situation. If possible, provide evidence to show you were somewhere else at the time and tell the police and DVLA you think your number plate has been cloned.’

I AM having a stressful time with Flogas, our liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) supplier. It has sent a bill out of the blue for £11,269, which was described as an overdue reminder — the first we’d heard of it. Before this we had been in credit with the company for several years. I emailed customer services, which just threatened to charge us VAT at 20pc, rather than the usual reduced rate of 5pc for households, on all future bills. This was because we have apparently gone over the amount normally used by a residential property. How did it reach this figure? Please help.

V.B., Musselburgh, East Lothian.

You and your neighbours had new smart meters installed late last year so were able to compare usage for your similar- sized four-bedroom terraced houses. You were fuming because the levels of LPG used were much the same, yet your neighbours were charged about £280 for the recent quarter compared to your eye-popping £11,269 bill — which didn’t even mention the period of usage it referred to.

You added that this is not the first time you have had a problem with Flogas and crazy bills.

Ten years ago, you and other residents received large bills due to an error by the supplier in the way it had calculated your bills. It used metric rather than imperial measurements to calculate gas usage. You ended up a few thousand pounds in credit but left it on the account for future bills.

After that, a visiting technician read the meter periodically. You kept checking yourself and it was still in credit at the last count. With a smart meter, you thought your bills would be accurate.

Despite your best efforts, you didn’t get a proper answer from Flogas about your concerns, so I asked it to investigate the source of this nasty bill.

A few days later, a spokesman told me that an executive had spoken to you and matters were now ‘amicably’ resolved. You confirmed this was so, reporting it had told you of its error with the sums, which meant it had been seriously underbilling you for the past four years.

Thankfully, instead of insisting on the £11,269 owed for the gas used, it agreed to write off 60pc and charge just £4,000.

You have agreed to meet the cost in 24 monthly instalments, on top of your usual bills. This means £7,000 or so of charges have been extinguished, which you said you were happy with.

Had this blunder occurred with a standard gas supply, more of the bill could have been erased.

rules set down by regulator ofgem say householders cannot be charged for gas or electricity used more than 12 months ago if they have not been correctly billed for it or informed about it in a statement of account.

But the rules do not apply to the ‘off-grid’ market that includes LPG and oil. Customers, can take a complaint to the liquid gas ombudsman at utilitiesadr.co.uk.

■ WRITE to Sally Hamilton at Sally Sorts It, Money Mail, 9 Derry Street, London W8 5HY, or email sally@dailymail.co.uk — include phone number, address and a note addressed to the offending organisation giving them permission to talk to Sally Hamilton. Please do not send original documents as we cannot take responsibility for them. No legal responsibility can be accepted by the Daily Mail for answers given.