‘It was so worrying’: EU motorist tells of £11,000 run-in with London Ulez rules

Driver was unaware he had to register French hire car with TfL’s collection agent even though it was emissions compliant

• Thousands of EU citizens ‘wrongly fined for driving in London Ulez’

Christian Ducarre received three fines totalling nearly £11,000 after driving his French hire car to London to attend his son’s wedding. The car, which was fully compliant with ultra-low emission zone emissions rules, was mistakenly classed as a heavy goods vehicle and deemed to be in breach of the separate low emissions zone (Lez) and well as Ulez. Lez covers lorries, vans, buses and coaches, and fines are between £500 and £2,000 a day depending on the vehicle’s weight.

“I had checked that the car’s emissions standard was Euro 06 and so was not liable for the Ulez charge,” he said.