My son hired a car in October for a few days using a debit card & has just had £85 taken out of his account by the hire company for ‘admin’.?
They say it’s for an admin fee for a speeding offence that he knows nothing about. The Police have not notified him. How can they take money out of his account 2 months later without this being theft or fraud ?
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The police don't send anything to him - if it's a speed camera the ticket is sent to the registered owner of the vehicle which in this case is the hire company
he should be able to demand a copy of the ticket from the hire company -- it would show the date, time and location where the infraction happened
That happened to me in Sweden - 4 months after I got home the hire company in Sweden billed me for a speeding ticket Turns out it was from a speed camera and the ticket showed the date and time -- which was when I had the car
Did he read the contract?
The fine print in the contract covers this sort of thing. Automated speed cams are common in UK and people get done by them all of the time. The resulting ticket is sent to the registered keeper of the vehicle who is legally responsible for the fine.
The contract states that the car hirer is responsible for any charges such as for unpaid tolls, congestion charges, speed cams, parking tickets, pedestrian zone violations, etc. whilst the vehicle is in the hirer's custody until it is checked in by car hire company representative. He should ask for proof of the violation. If the car hire company cannot provide it then they will have to reverse the charge. The Catch 22 here of course is that they have the proof as it was used to initiate the charge to his debit card.
Ask them for proof. However, I would be willing to bet its legitimate. Automated system, which is why he didn't know anything about it...he was never pulled over and handed a ticket.
Same thing with Red Light Cameras; you wont know about it until a month later...
They need to show him proof. If they refuse then contact Trading Standards or CAB.
UK
I suspect it's an automated speed trap. Since those things can't identify the driver, it's the car's owner that's responsible for the ticket. You can bet the fine print in the rental contract covers that sort of thing. But he should ask the company to produce details about the incident just to make sure it's valid. After all, if they're blaming him he deserves proof.
Contact an attorney