Local woman raising awareness of wrongly incurred toll fine
A local woman, who claims she was incorrectly fined by a tolling company after a car was misidentified as being hers, is now raising awareness of the issue after a lengthy battle to have the toll charge rescinded, reports Katie Glavin.
The issue originally began in August, when Fermoy local Diana O’Reilly was contacted by tolling company, eFlow, regarding an unpaid journey on Dublin’s M50 Motorway.
However, the car which had been travelling that route was not Diana’s and it became clear that a mistake had been made.
While number plates were very similar to that identified in the toll route cameras, being just one digit in the difference, the car’s make, model and colour was entirely different to Diana’s vehicle.
“It all started in August and I got the first letter with the charge which was about €6 and I contacted them to let them know they had made a mistake. I wasn’t on that road at that time,”
“They had the wrong number plate. It wasn’t my car. It was the wrong colour, wrong car, wrong number plate,” Diana said.
A letter was sent to Diana by the tolling company in September, notifying her of the added second penalty for non-payment of the toll, with pictures attached of the offending vehicle, one completely different to Diana’s car.
Diana also noted that at the time the toll charge was applied, she was not in the area and had been working with the HSE in Cork City.
The September letter noted that the fee now stood at €47.60.
“If you do not pay the total balance within 56 days of the issue date of this notice, your case will be passed to our Enforcement Service Provider. They will then send you a Toll Violation Notice and an additional fine of €104 per journey will be applied. Please be aware that if you do not take action to resolve this Toll Violation Notice, it will result in prosecution,” the letter read.
According to Diana, she had made multiple attempts to contact the eFlow customer service number, however, was put on hold for long periods of time.
“It is impossible to talk to anyone in customer service on the phone. I was just put on hold for hours. I eventually managed to register a complaint on the eFlow website after numerous attempts to contact eFlow by phone. I subsequently received communication from eFlow to state that my complaint had not been upheld and that the fine still stood,” Diana said.
FEES CONTINUED TO RISE
Eventually, the fee along with penalties for non-payment that were allegedly incorrectly issued to Diana, stood at €152.60.
Another email was then sent by Diana to the company highlighting their alleged errors with attached documents, noting the discrepancy in the number plate, car make and model.
“The original toll fee was €3 and then it went up to €152.60 with the threat of court action. They are harassing people, it’s not right what they are doing. I wish to highlight the issue for other people, especially older people who could be quite intimidated into paying a fine that was not their’s for fear of prosecution,” Diana added.
It wasn’t until a ‘final notice’ was issued via solicitors to Diana that the issue was resolved following additional correspondence and charges and fines were dropped.
The Avondhu contacted eFlow regarding the issue but were unable to obtain a response at the time of going to press. However, advice is available on their website regarding appealing a penalty.
“If you believe you have wrongly received a penalty letter because your vehicle was not on the M50 at the time specified in the penalty letter or you have already paid your toll or sold your vehicle, we invite you to send our customer service team a message online via our contact form. One of our agents will review your query and contact you as soon as possible,” it reads.