An Ipswich woman is among thousands of people mistakenly fined after using the Dartford Crossing. 

National Highways has cancelled 59,007 penalty charge notices (PNCs), with a total value of £4.1million, in the year after it switched to a new provider, Freedom of Information figures obtained by the PA news agency show.

Each fine was £70, reduced to £35 if paid within 14 days.

Sarah Rodwell-Dodsworth, from Ipswich, received two fines in January after her payment card registered with her Dart Charge account to automatically pay for crossings was “removed”.

In July last year private company Conduent was given a contract worth £150million by National Highways to manage crossing payments.

After Conduent began its work, there were instances of drivers being fined or charged when a vehicle with a similar plate to their own used the crossing, and being unable to make payments and manage accounts.

Crossing users were required to re-validate payment cards when Conduent took on its new role, but Mrs Rodwell-Dodsworth said she was unaware of this.

She said: “We had an account set up, there was no reason for the card to be removed.

“It’s quite frustrating. I’ve never had a fine (for the Dartford Crossing) until this occasion.

“In our opinion, we were trying to be law-abiding citizens paying the toll as required, and were punished off the back of that.

“It almost feels like they want to catch you out.”

The figures show that in the 12 months before Conduent took over, only 3,595 fines were cancelled.

National Highways said in a statement: “There were technical issues with the transition to the new service providers, which resulted in an increased number of PCNs issued and an increase in cancelled PCNs.

“We regret that some customers have experienced issues when making payments and managing their accounts following the transition to the new Dart Charge service providers.

“We understand that anything associated with finances can be stressful, and we apologise for the inconvenience that these customers have faced.

“In the minority of circumstances where PCNs are issued in error, the charge will be cancelled as soon as a customer contacts us to let us know.

“We have resolved the issues and seen the errors reduce to less than 1% of all PCNs issued.”

Conduent declined to comment.