Newcastle: Clean Air Zone scam warning

Mr Pickthall said he was astounded by the "brazenness"

A van driver is urging people to be on guard for unofficial websites claiming to take Clean Air Zone (CAZ) payments.

Jeff Pickthall, from Heaton, spotted one such site when looking up the Newcastle CAZ boundaries.

He realised the website was fake after it requested a £14 payment, rather than the £12.50 charge that vans must pay to enter the anti-pollution zone.

Newcastle City Council has warned drivers to only use the official payment system gov.uk/clean-air-zones.

Mr Pickthall told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "It could trick someone who is perhaps a bit more vulnerable than I am.

"I put myself in the shoes of my mother, who is 80. She would be baffled by it."

The CAZ was introduced in Newcastle on 30 January this year

The 56-year-old spotted the site after searching online for "clean air zone newcastle". He says the top result he found on Google was a sponsored post directing users to an unofficial website.

He quickly became suspicious, after it requested a £14 payment, rather than the £12.50 charge that vans must pay to enter the city centre CAZ if they do not meet its environmental restrictions.

The website also asks users to make the payment after entering their licence plate number, even if that registration is for a private car, which would be completely exempt from all tolls in the Newcastle CAZ.

The site states that it is "not connected to or affiliated with the https://www.gov.uk/clean-air-zones site or any other official authority administering, regulating or overseeing the Clean Air Zone charge".

It adds that it charges a "service fee for assisting you in the application and payment of driving in Clean Air Zone". 

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Labour councillor Irim Ali said: "We can't stress enough how important it is to only use the official Clean Air Zone payment website when paying a CAZ charge.

"Unfortunately there are a number of unofficial sites that people have used, only for them to later find that they didn't actually need to pay or that their payment was not passed on, resulting in them receiving a penalty charge notice.

"Thankfully on this occasion the gentleman realised before making a payment. But we are aware of instances, both here in the North East and elsewhere in the country, where people have found themselves out of pocket."