EnglandAmjad Khan and his family, who live in Blackburn, found themselves in an unexpected legal and digital enforcement process after purchasing fuel for only 20 pounds (Approximately 1150 TL).
CASH PAYMENT WAS MADE, IT WAS BLACKLISTED
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The family, who said that they paid for the gasoline they bought from the gas station in cash, was blacklisted through the automatic system on the grounds that the payment was not made. In the official notification sent to the family, the station owner company requested a £30 administrative fee in addition to the £20 fuel fee.
FUEL BANNED AT MORE THAN 1300 STATIONS
While the objection process was ongoing, Amjad Khan and his family were practically unable to buy fuel at more than 1,300 fuel stations where the company’s license plate recognition system was installed. The family, who entered the station with their vehicle, stated that the system gave an automatic alarm and they could not receive service. Nasim Khan, a member of the family, said that this situation seriously affected their daily lives and that they could not visit their son, who lives in London, because of the concern of “running out of gas on the road”.
CONTRADICTORY EVIDENCE ARRIVED A YEAR LATER
Amjad Khan requested that the station camera records be examined to prove that the payment was made, but this request was not met for a long time. As the process dragged on, the amount of debt increased, reaching 140 pounds sterling, or approximately 8 thousand TL.
At the mediation meeting held approximately a year later, the company presented as evidence an image taken from the license plate recognition system and a handwritten note kept by the station employee. However, the Khan family argued that these two documents did not match each other. While the note allegedly stated that the vehicle left the station at 22.28, the camera footage showed that the vehicle was still receiving fuel at 22.31.
A LAWSUIT WAS FILED, THE COMPANY TAKEN A STEP BACK
A lawsuit was filed against the Khan family, but when the hearing date came, it was learned that the company dropped its complaint. After the incident was reported in the press, other drivers who experienced similar grievances emerged. A former company employee who spoke to Guardian Money claimed that there were serious problems in the company’s license plate recognition software and that these problems had been known since at least 2023. The company did not accept the allegations and argued that its systems were “one of the most advanced solutions on the market.”
