I went to Ireland recently with my car. I travelled Stenna Line from Holyhead to Dublin. When I was there some years ago there was a toll on the M50 and one paid at the tollbooth. This year, although all the signs were still indicating a toll, there were no booths and nowhere to pay so I proceeded on my way. I did a tour of the part of Ireland that I wanted and in doing so passed an unmanned toll a few times. There was nothing to tell me otherwise regarding payments.

On my return home I received a Bill from eFlow (I had never heard of these people). It says that I must pay £13.75 and £13.75 in penalties. On reading the small print, apparently I should have paid online, but because I was unaware that of there setup and did not know I had to pay until I returned home I feel badly done by. I lodged an appeal and they acknowledged it and said I would hear in 28 days and nothing would happen until that. They then rejected the appeal on the grounds that I was the registered owner of the vehicle, but I had never claimed that I wasn’t.

I appealed on the grounds that I did not know about their system of paying as there no notices to say otherwise. On rejecting the appeal they seem to have further fined me for not paying the original fine. I have paid this as soon as they informed me to stop further costs. I feel that they should not be able to bully people like this. Do you think that I should take this to the small claims court, not for the money but on the principle?