'Bureaucratic nightmare': Children's nanny receives 120 Ulez penalty fines after 'honest mistake'

A children’s nanny who received more than 120 Ulez fines after making an “honest mistake” has told of the stress she has suffered trying to get the penalties overturned. Justine Jenkins said she had been caught in an “unbearable” situation that “spiralled” into a bureaucratic nightmare as she pleaded with Transport for London to stop sending bailiffs to her home.

Ms Jenkins, who has autism and suffers with ADHD, said battling with TfL and its debt collectors had caused “significant burnout and severe emotional distress”. She drives a 14-year-old Peugeot 308 diesel, which does not comply with the Ulez exhaust emission rules – meaning she has to pay £12.50 a day to drive in London.

She lives in Guildford but works as a children’s nanny in Wimbledon. She also travels across the South of England as a freelance children’s nursery assessor. Her role as a nanny involves collecting her employer’s children by car from school and take them to extracurricular activities and appointments – something she was unable to do when her car was clamped.

She failed to realise that the ultra-low emission zone was being expanded from the inner boundary of the North and South Circular roads to the Greater London boundary in August 2023. When she moved home, she updated the details on her driving licence - but failed to realise that she also had to update the address on her vehicle “log book”.

This meant that when TfL sent her warning letter and then fines, they went unanswered as they were sent to her old address. The matter then escalated when TfL referred her case to the bailiffs. According to documents shared with The Standard, she received 123 penalty charge notices (PCNs) between October 2023 and September last year.

The Ulez penalty fine is £180 but this is reduced by half if paid within 14 days – but escalates to £270 if payment is delayed. Additional levies are then charged if the matter is passed to bailiffs. A case worker in the office of Ms Jenkins’ MP Zoe Franklin, who represents Guildford, was able to get TfL to agree to cancel many of the fines.

But Ms Jenkins believes that some penalties are still active, in part because her application for “breathing space” has put enforcement action on hold, but may also have delayed TfL being able to cancel the fines. A TfL spokesman said on Monday that all fines had been wiped and that Ms Jenkins would not be liable for any charges.

But she said the entire process had been hugely stressful to try to resolve. She described TfL’s appeals system as “incompetent” and added: “They don’t deal with the problem holistically. The most fines you can challenge at a time is 30. “While I was on ‘breathing space’, they confirmed over the phone that another fine had gone to the bailiffs.”.

She told The Standard: “The cost has been immense, both financially and emotionally. Hours spent on the phone, making calls, taking time off work to handle these issues, and visiting the Citizens’ Advice Bureau and court to have documents witnessed.

“Days lost to autistic overwhelm or depression, and the stress has been so severe that my GP has had to prescribe medication to help me cope. “Navigating life is already challenging, but the constant threat of bailiffs and the worry that my car might be clamped, combined with endless, unproductive phone calls, has made it even harder.”.

She said her home had been visited on numerous occasions by bailiffs. “Because I work two jobs now, I’m out a lot. But my neighbour was telling me they were coming round all the time and knocking on the door. “One time, when I was here on a Sunday, they had already put their van in front of my car [to block it in] and clamped it.”.

She has now registered her car with TfL’s AutoPay system – meaning she is automatically charged the daily Ulez levy when she enters Greater London, and there is no risk of incurring a PCN. According to the mayor, 96 per cent of vehicles seen driving in London are Ulez compliant, meaning they do not have to pay the charge.

A TfL spokesperson said: “We are sorry for any distress suffered by Ms Jenkins as a result of outstanding Ulez penalty charge notices (PCNs). “We took her circumstances into account and cancelled a large number of PCNs at the start of the year. There were a number of other PCNs that were covered by the government’s Breathing Space regulations, which freeze any further action for a set period.