A couple were horrified to discover their £22,000 car had been seized by bailiffs and sold on for half its value over an unpaid £35 penalty charge they didn't know about.
Ravi Oak, 55, and Anu Apte, 53, unwittingly drove through a bus gate in their Mercedes C350E in Chelmsford, Essex, shortly before going to India for a prolonged stay due to a death in the family.
Essex County Council sent a £35 fixed penalty notice to their home in Colchester, Essex, but it was left unopened as no one was there.
The unpaid fine was later doubled to £70 for non-payment and other related warning letters went unopened during the couple's absence.
Five months later, a friend who had been checking in on their house went round and found their car missing from the garage.
It was only then that the letters were opened, revealing the silver car, built in 2017, had been repossessed by bailiffs over the unpaid debt.
The couple are now considering taking Essex County Council to court because they believe the notice was not properly served.
Mr Oak said: 'We feel cheated and we feel let down because we think people have not followed the law.
Ravi Oak and Anu Apte's Mercedes C350E was seized by bailiffs and sold on without their knowledge while they were abroad
A Mercedes C350E similar to the one owned by Ravi Oak and Anu Apte that was seized and sold over an unpaid fixed penalty notice
'We did not receive the notice, so it was not properly served – this is an abuse of power.
'We need other people to know about what has happened and that it is morally wrong.'
Mr Oak said he had searched for the car's registration plate online and found it had been sold at auction for £10,500, less than half its estimated value.
The couple drove through the bus gate in November 2022 and have spent around two years in a legal dispute with the council over the matter.
They are now preparing to take the case to a civil court to claim damages.
Ms Apte, who spent six months in India following the bereavement, said: 'It's a lot of emotional stress, that's one thing. Obviously, money is another thing.
'And then the impact it had at the workplace as well - we became the target of criticism. People who didn't know I was out of the country just think 'Why didn't they pay it? Why couldn't you just pay the fine?'
'The issue was not that – I wasn't here and was unaware of it. We would have paid the fine if we were in the UK and had known about it.'
The unpaid debt was passed to debt collection agency Bristow and Sutor, whose website states they 'pride ourselves on placing social responsibility and customer welfare at the centre of everything we do'.
The company was approached for a comment.
Debt collector Bristow and Sutor were appointed by Essex County Council over the unpaid £35 fixed penalty notice
Essex County Council said it always made repeated attempts to contact vehicle owners over unpaid fixed penalty notices.
A spokesman said: 'If an owner breaches a bus gate they are contacted a number of times.
'This is typically over a four-month period and via letters and in-person visits.
'They are given the opportunity to either pay the fine or make representations or appeal.
'For this particular matter, the owner was contacted five times.
'If an owner continues to ignore this repeated correspondence, it is passed to a third-party enforcement agent.
'The agent then follows their own legal process to recover the fines incurred. The vehicle could then be at risk of being removed.
'This is very rare and almost all vehicle owners pay before it gets to this point.
'We follow legal process when contacting owners regarding fines.
'We make considerable effort so they aware of the fine and the options they have.'