Sat urday 31 Aug ust 2019 The Guardian •
49▲ Giancarlo Bonati drove his
Mercedes Benz G300 from Ibiza to
London to be with his ill motherSam’s smart buys
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n December, Giancarlo
Bonati, a DJ in Ibiza, made
the journey by car to London
to be with his mother, who
had been diagnosed with
cancer. During three months
in the country he drove in and out
of London 12 times, although never
into the city centre.
But in April, without prior
warning that fi nes were building
up, he says he was left in a state
of shock after receiving 12 lettersresponsibility for matters relating
to foreign-plated vehicles. We were
told to deal with EPC directly. We
appealed the fi nes with EPC, which
completely ignored them and just
increased the fi nes ,” he said.
The good news is that after Money
contacted TfL this week it cancelled
all the fi nes, a result he says he “ can’t
quite believe ... thank you, we are
breathing a huge sigh of relief ”.
But how could any driver end
up with offi cially sanctioned fi nes
of £20,000 for driving into London
12 times? The answer will strike fear
into anyone who owns a large 4x4,
or who is bringing their car into the
capital from Europe. It also raises
questions about the information
given to drivers on the TfL website.
Bonati’s problem was not therecently introduced ultra low
emission zone, which costs £12.50 a
day for vehicles entering the central
London congestion charge area.
Instead, his car allegedly breached
the much broader low emission zone
(LEZ), which covers Greater London.
The LEZ is mostly aimed at
articulated lorries and trucks which,
if not compliant with the rules, are
charged £100 a day. If the vehicle
is from outside the UK and not
registered with TfL beforehand,
the fee is £200 a day. If it is not paid,it jumps to £500, then escalates
to £750. On top of that, there are
extra fees for the debt collectors.
But Bonati was not driving a
lorry. He was driving his family
car, a 30-year-old petrol-engined
Mercedes Benz G300, pictured
above. It is very similar to a Land
Rover Defender and Land Rover 110
– popular in the British countryside.
TfL said some 4x4s are classifi ed
as commercial vehicles: “If a 4 x4
is classifi ed as a car, it isn’t aff ected
by the LEZ. If the manufacturer
and EU classify it as a commercial
vehicle, it is. Any vehicle designed
to carry goods, or more than
nine passengers, is classed as a
commercial vehicle (even if only
used for recreational purposes)
and could be aff ected by the LEZ.”
But Bonati, who acknowledges
his car is more suited to Ibiza’s rocky
terrain than the streets of London,
meticulously checked the TfLNot fi ne ‘I was charged £20,000 for
entering the London emissions zone’
A Spanish motorist has been
hit with huge penalties for
driving his car in the UK
capital. Patrick Collinson
and Miles Brignall report£750
The maximum daily fee charged
to drivers in vehicles from outside
the UK and not registered with TfL Continued Page 51sent by Transport for London’s
debt collection agents, EPC.
Sent to his address in Ibiza, they
demanded €1,219 each, or €14,637
in total (£13,300) for his 12 drives.
He appealed, but the fi ne went up to
£20,000, with about £18,000 going
to TfL and £2,000 to EPC.
“ Of course, when you receive
any fi ne from an offi cial body it is
a worry, let alone ones amounting
to €22 ,000,” Bonati said. “It has
created a huge amount of stress.
The overriding fear was they [EPC]
had the power to send debt collectors
local to us in Spain and seize goods
amounting to the €22 ,000. Either
that, or put a lien on our property –
we thought anything was possible.”
Bonati contacted Guardian
Money in despair. “TfL negated allRELEASED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws