Bailiffs charge family £300 after LTN fine address mix-up

A RESIDENT of a Low Traffic Neighbourhood was forced to pay almost £300 to bailiffs after council officials sent a fixed penalty notice to the wrong address.

Ava Zoccola, 20, from Dulwich, south-east London, said she had been “antagonised by two men attempting to barge past me and into our home” – unaware that Southwark council had issued a fine five months earlier.

Her father Tony Zoccola, 58, was handed a £65 fixed penalty notice in June 2021 for driving through the Dulwich Village northbound LTN.

The LTN was quietly rolled out in the suburb at the start of the pandemic as part of the “green transport revolution” announced by Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary.

It has promoted a furious backlash from locals who claim it was “imposed” upon them, with surveys by residents’ groups showing pollution has soared.

Now, documents seen by this newspaper show the Zoccola family had to pay £278 to Marston Recovery, a bailiff firm sent out by Southwark council to recover “debt” that had spiralled from their original fine.

A notice of enforcement sent by Marston Recovery shows more than £500 was initially sought from Ms Zoccola, while her father was out at work. She was awarded £300 in compensation for the conduct of the bailiffs.

A spokesman for Marston Holdings, the parent company of Marston Recovery, said: “The enforcement stage fee was removed during the visit in recognition of the customer’s frustration regarding their address.

“All complainants can have their case reviewed by our independent advisory group, and we have chosen to refer this case to them ourselves.”