Fined ... but I wasn't in London

The congestion charge came in for fresh criticism today from motorists who claimed they were wrongly fined for driving into the zone when they were nowhere near London.

As the first batch of 15,000 fines was issued, drivers contacted the Evening Standard to complain.

Transport for London insisted that no fines were sent out until they had been thoroughly examined by a team of "manual penalty checkers".

But among those who contacted the Standard was a magistrate who was in Yorkshire heading to a meeting with eight other magistrates at the time her car allegedly drove into the central London zone.

A dentist said he was treating patients at his surgery in Slough at the same time TfL claims his Porsche was spotted driving along City Road after failing to pay the £5 charge.

The cause of the alleged blunders is not known. It could be that TfL's cameras misread the number plates or that motorists intent on dodging the charge may have illegally copied the victims' legitimate number plates and put them on separate, similar vehicles.

But TfL's manual checkers - who cross-check the vehicle's colour, make and model before issuing penalty notices - are meant to spot obvious discrepancies.

Transport for London said: "Hundreds of thousands of people are successfully paying the charge across all payment channels and there have also been hundreds of thousands of successful registrationsfor discounts and fleet accounts for the charge.

"We have a robust process in place to deal with any isolated errors that will inevitably occur in a scheme of this size. We will look at each individual case brought to our attention and take any necessary action."

Today the RAC Foundation urged TfL to sort out the problems urgently. "This scheme will be judged not just on how it copes with congestion but on how it deals with people who are fined when they were hundreds of miles away," said spokesman Kevin Delaney. "If the system is perceived to be unjust it will not be deemed to have succeeded.

Mr Delaney added: "If you get a fine and think it is wrong, don't wait. If you know your car was parked on the drive at the time, get statements from the neighbours to say so."