A SHOCKED couple came back from holiday to find their £22,000 Mercedes had been taken away by the council and sold while they were gone.
Following a family bereavement, Ravi Oak, 55, and Anu Apte, 53, were in India for six months when County Council and sold it for half price.
The C350E was repossessed by the council following a £35 unpaid penalty for unknowingly driving through a bus gate in Chelmsford, Essex before their travels in November 2022.
The fine was sent to their home address in Colchester, Essex, but the letters remained unopened as they had already left the country.
Ravi said: “We feel cheated and we feel let down, because people have not followed the law.
“We did not receive the notice, so it was not properly served – this is an abuse of power.
“We need other people to know about what has happened and that it is morally wrong.”
In their absence, the charge doubled to £70 and repeated letters sent to their address.
A friend of Anu and Ravi, who has been checking in on the house, went into the house to find the letters after noticing the car was missing from the couple's garage.
Essex County Council had ordered debt collectors Bristow and Sutor to remove the vehicle from the couple's private carport and later sold it off at an auction in Brentwood.
The letters said that the vehicle had been repossessed because the bus gate fine hadn't been paid.
Ravi discovered this after searching the Mercedes' registration plate online and found that his car had been sold for £10,500, half of its estimated value.
The couple are now prepared to take the case to the civil court after two and a half years of legal wrangling in an effort to win damages.
Anu said: “It’s a lot of emotional stress, that’s one thing.
“Obviously, money is another thing.
“And then the impact it had at the workplace as well – we become the target of criticism.
“People who didn’t know I was out of the country just think, ‘Why didn’t they pay it? Why couldn’t you just pay the fine?’
“The issue was not that – I wasn’t here and was unaware of it.
“We would have paid the fine if we were in the UK and had known about it.”;
COUNCIL RESPONDS
An Essex County Council spokesperson said: “Essex County Council always follows the legal process for contacting vehicle owners who contravene bus gates and collecting the fines incurred.
“Very rarely do these cases go as far as vehicles being removed in order to pay the fines – almost all vehicle owners pay before that point.
“The process involves five separate pieces of correspondence being sent to the vehicle owner typically and in this case over a four month period, giving the vehicle owner an opportunity to either pay or make representations/appeal.
“If the correspondence continues to be ignored or no response is received from the vehicle owner following hand-delivered correspondence and to the efforts made to make contact with the vehicle owner in person at the property, the vehicle may be removed.
“Essex County Council follows the National Standards in relation to enforcement, and we are not aware of any breach of standards in this case.
“Bus gates are in place to improve travel flow around towns and cities and any fines received by the Council are ringfenced according to legislation and reinvested to help improve public transport, roads and the transport network across Essex.
“They are about compliance rather than income, and success would be no fines at all.
“Due to ongoing legal proceedings, we are unable to comment further.”;
