Coach and bus operators whose vehicles are impacted by the Birmingham Clean Air Zone (CAZ) have been warned of a scam payment website. It presents the charge for entry at £75 per day for all coaches and buses, not the £50 set by Birmingham City Council that applies only to those that do not meet Euro VI standards or better.
The site – cleanairzone.org.uk – notes in small print that it “is not connected to or affiliated with the government or any other official authority” involved with the Birmingham CAZ. Instead, it claims to offer “a review and submission service” for paying daily charges “in return for a processing fee.”
A Midlands-based coach operator highlighted the scam after attempting to pay a CAZ charge for a non-compliant vehicle. They realised that the cleanairzones.org.uk site adds a 50% processing fee at the time of payment and did not proceed, but have cautioned that it could catch others unaware.
The website in question is linked to the very similar congestioncharges.org.uk.
That site offers an equivalent unofficial payment service for the London Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) and congestion charge.
A dummy booking showed it offers a ULEZ payment for a coach or bus of £127. That is despite those vehicles not being liable for ULEZ charges, instead being captured by the Low Emission Zone (LEZ).
Terms and conditions on cleanairzone.org.uk include a section headed “information about us” that discloses nothing of the identity of the business or individual behind the website. Terms note that even when a customer is legally entitled to end a contract with the anonymous business, no refund in full will be provided.
The scam CAZ site includes a set of FAQs that have largely been copied from the Birmingham Labour website. However, the unofficial source has changed one such entry to incorrectly state that the daily charge for vehicles including coaches and buses is £75 with no reference to its own “processing fee.” When a dummy booking for either a Euro VI or a zero-emission coach is made, the site incorrectly indicates that £75 is due.
Transport for London (TfL) warns against the use of unofficial websites, of which it says there are many, to make LEZ, ULEZ and congestion charge payments where applicable.
TfL advises that there have been cases of those sites taking money but not passing it on, leading to the vehicle owner receiving a penalty charge notice.
TfL says it “continually” works with search engine providers, National Trading Standards and the Advertising Standards Authority to “remedy” the issue of unofficial websites. On 17 October, the term ‘Birmingham Clean Air Zone pay’ in Google returned cleanairzone.org.uk as the top, sponsored, result but it has now gone
National Trading Standards is aware of the cleanairzone.org.uk website “and is looking into it.” The agency adds that its eCrime team works to remove ‘copycat’ sites “where fraudsters pose as legitimate websites.”
routeone has attempted to make contact via a webform on the cleanairzone.org.uk site but no reply has been received.
Payment of the correct £50 daily charge to drive a non-compliant coach or bus in the Birmingham CAZ can be made via a page on the gov.uk portal, as with all Clean Air Zones in England.
