A father was hounded by an ‘aggressive’ and ‘threatening’ debt collection agency after passing through a Low Traffic Neighbourhood – which was later ruled unlawful – on the way to his GP.
Croydon resident Roger Minnis, 58, was recovering from abdominal surgery when a friend gave him a lift to the GP and drove through the restricted zone.
Despite never receiving a penalty charge notice (PCN), the Good Samaritan received a letter in November from a debt collection agency chasing hundreds of pounds for an ‘unpaid’ fine.
Mr Minnis and his daughter Saffron contacted the debt collectors on the driver’s behalf but were then bombarded with calls and texts despite not owning the van.
The van was registered to Mr Minnis’s friend through his business.
Saffron, 29, said she received no help from Croydon Council – which she called ‘absolutely disgusting’ – and was only saved when the High Court ruled in March that the borough’s Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTN) were in place mainly to make money, ordering them all to be removed.
The Mail previously revealed that Croydon Council raked in £7.2million from the schemes – drivers can now apply for their penalty charges to be refunded but the council has not committed to ensuring the full amount goes back to drivers.
Mr Minnis had recently undergone major surgery and was bleeding from a wound when he called South Norwood Hill Medical Centre for help on June 5 last year.
Roger Minnis was given a lift by his friend to his GP – they took a route which strayed into a Croydon LTN later ruled unlawful by the High Court
He was told a nurse could dress the wound if he came immediately – a friend working nearby offered to drive him but strayed into the LTN on Holmesdale Road.
From Mr Minnis’s house, the GP surgery is a two-minute drive via this route but becomes much longer by going around, Saffron said.
The 58-year-old was treated and family thought nothing of the trip until November 14, when a letter was sent to Mr Minnis’s friend to say he had strayed into an LTN and not paid the resulting penalty charge.
Debt collectors CDER Group said the Good Samaritan had failed to pay Croydon Council £250 and supposedly now owed £325 after a ‘compliance stage fee’ had been added.
But Saffron said they had not received a PCN and emailed on behalf of her father’s friend to ask for help.
She said the council did not reply and a CDER employee was ‘threatening’ and ‘aggressive’ when she called them.
‘They’re kind of threatening me,’ she told the Mail.
‘They’re saying if we don’t pay [the fine] today, it’s going up. “Croydon Council can’t do anything, it sits with us, you have to pay or we’ll take it away,” and all the dramatics that come with it.
‘I was asking them: please can you just hold fire? I just wanted to contact Croydon Council because we hadn’t received any correspondence about this and we want to be given the opportunity to be able to appeal.
‘But they did not care.’
The same day Saffron called the debt collectors, the company raised the fine to £565.
As she frantically prepared an appeal to the Traffic Enforcement Centre, CDER continued to call and message her despite the ‘offending’ van not being hers.
CDER claimed Mr Minnis was registered as a director of the company which owned the van but did not provide evidence for this.
In one message, the company said automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras were ‘actively looking’ for the van.
After daily calls, Saffron blocked CDER’s phone number while the legal appeal continued.
Saffron received messages claiming her car was being tracked by ANPR cameras
But in February her effort was rejected by the Traffic Enforcement Centre, which said Saffron had not provided an explanation for submitting the challenge late, despite her claim she had known nothing of the fine until the debt collectors’ letter arrived.
Saffron was told to pay £313 if she wanted a district judge to review the decision at a hearing or £123 for a review without a hearing.
‘You don’t want to put more money in the pot and you’re not even going to win,’ she said.
‘And at this time the bailiffs started calling. It was just very, very stressful.
‘I had to block the bailiffs a few days after because they were just calling me, texting me, in capital letters, flagged or things like that to try and trigger us. It was just horrible.’
As Saffron and her father continued to deal with his health, they refused to pay the fine.
A month after their appeal was rejected, all six of Croydon’s LTNs were ruled unlawful by the High Court, which found they were in place primarily to raise money for the council.
Drivers fined for straying into the zones can now claim refunds but the council has not committed to giving the full £7.2million it generated back to motorists.
Saffron called Croydon Council ‘immediately’ after learning of the ruling and asked for the PCN to be cancelled and her details removed from the bailiffs’ database.
She did not receive a reply so called CDER herself – the company confirmed the fine had been withdrawn by the council.
‘They didn’t even have the decency to say, you know, ‘we’re sorry, we’ve cancelled it’ or anything like that,’ Saffron said.
‘It’s absolutely disgusting. At the time, as a daughter, I was trying to support my dad, who just had surgery.’
Croydon Council was forced to remove all six of its LTNs last month after the High Court found they were mainly in place to raise money. Pictured: An LTN in neighbouring Lambeth
She added her father had been accessing ‘urgent healthcare’ at the time and was ‘penalised’ for doing so, being bombarded with ‘consistent calls and texts threats’.
‘It’s absolutely disgusting that Croydon Council thought that was okay and even today, there’s been no correspondence from them, no apology.’
Saffron said she had never seen evidence from the council showing where the original PCN had been sent.
Shadow Transport Secretary Richard Holden said: ‘Croydon’s rotten LTNs were put in place by the 2020 Labour administration, and the High Court was right to rule them unlawful. Jason Perry, the Conservative Mayor of Croydon, subsequently promised to make it easy for residents to reclaim fines. Drivers deserve their money back, and an end to councils using road schemes as revenue traps.
‘The previous Conservative Government put in clear guidance saying councils must listen to local people and keep these schemes under proper review. This Labour Government ditched that guidance and now refuse to enforce any standards at all. They’ve simply washed their hands of it.’
A Croydon Council spokesperson said: ‘We are sorry about the problems our resident experienced with this PCN.’
They said the unpaid fine had been cancelled following the High Court ruling but maintained it had been ‘issued correctly’ when the LTNs were being enforced.
The spokesperson added: ‘Our policy requires agencies acting on our behalf to use a proportionate approach when chasing fines.’
Residents can request refunds of penalty charges issued for LTNs between March 30, 2024, and March 4, 2026, on the council’s website.
The council said it encouraged residents struggling to pay fines or bills to make contact so it could ‘work with them to explore what support may be available’.
A CDER Group spokesperson said: ‘Our records show we contacted the resident five times and having reviewed all the calls, our staff were polite and helpful, advising the resident of the appeals process.
‘This was not followed and the enforcement process continued correctly in line with the relevant regulations.
‘As soon as the resident filed the required forms to challenge the issuing of the original penalty charge, enforcement action was suspended and no further contact was made, with the case eventually being recalled by our client.’
