London cab drivers hit with spike in final demands for tickets they say never existed
- Perry Richardson
- 5 minutes ago
- 2 min read
London taxi drivers faced a sharp increase in enforcement action linked to parking penalty charge notices over the Christmas and New Year period, following what the Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association (LTDA) described as administrative failures at penalty processing centres used by multiple London boroughs.
Steve McNamara, LTDA General Secretary , said members were contacted by enforcement agencies over unpaid PCNs they had no prior knowledge of, with some receiving collection orders and final notices without ever seeing the original penalty notice.
Writing in TAXI Magazine, McNamara said the problem appeared to stem from a mix-up at PCN processing centres handling notices on behalf of several London councils. As a result, drivers were required to undertake formal legal steps to prevent further enforcement.
“The process for tackling these errors and sending it back to the issuing body involves the member making a ‘Statutory Declaration’ in front of a solicitor,” McNamara said. “It’s a formal written statement confirming the facts are true, in these cases declaring that the member knew nothing about the PCN prior to the notices being served.”
LTDA reports sharp rise in statutory declarations as cab drivers receive enforcement notices for penalties they say they never received
According to McNamara, the volume of such declarations rose dramatically over the holiday period. In a typical week, LTDA solicitors would normally assist with three or four cases. Over Christmas and New Year, that number increased to almost 50. On 2 January alone, the association supported more than 20 members, alongside calls from non-members seeking advice.
The spike adds to an already heavy legal workload for the association, much of which relates to motoring enforcement and licensing disputes. McNamara said he used the quieter holiday period to review cases handled by LTDA lawyers over the past year, highlighting the scale of legal pressure faced by drivers.
“There were hundreds of them to choose from, everything coming from the masses of our bread and butter work, which is motoring,” he said.
A significant proportion of those cases involved so-called Exceptional Hardship appeals heard at Magistrates’ Courts. In these cases, drivers who had accumulated 12 penalty points were permitted to retain their DVLA driving licences, allowing them to remain legally entitled to drive.
However, McNamara noted that even when drivers successfully defended their right to hold a DVLA licence, further challenges often followed from Transport for London (TfL). He said members frequently faced separate action to revoke their taxi licences, forcing further appeals to TfL and, in some cases, back to the courts.
For drivers, unresolved PCNs and points-related disputes can quickly escalate into threats to their livelihood, even where penalties are disputed or later found to be defective.
The LTDA has not indicated how many boroughs may be affected by the reported processing issues, but the association says it continues to press for clearer, more reliable handling of PCNs to prevent drivers being drawn into costly and time-consuming legal action.
