LET’S TAKE HANDS OFF OUR DURGIA, MAYOR

A VILLAGE shopkeeper was left stunned when a bailiff tried to impound her van.

Sarah Harper, 51, managing director of Hambleden Village Stores and Post Office, fell victim to criminals who cloned the number plates of the shop’s Volkswagen Caddy.

She was prosecuted for paying bogus fines imposed by fraudsters in London.

Ms Harper started receiving penalty notices for traffic offenses in October. She appealed to each one as she entered.

Lambeth and Hackney councils agreed the van’s number plates had been cloned so revoked the fines.

However, Transport for London continued to fine Ms Harper despite her providing evidence.

On Friday, a bailiff arrived at the store and blocked the van, threatening to take it along with the stock from the store if the debt is not paid.

Mrs Harper, from Skirmett, was forced to pay £600 to ensure the van was not impounded.

The vehicle is essential to the store as it is used for cash and transport trips and to deliver goods to vulnerable people.

Ms Harper criticized TfL and London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

She said: “The bailiff blocked the van and said if we didn’t pay £2,200 he would take the van and store it from the shop.

“I said, ‘You can’t take the van’ and he said, ‘I’ve got to take it.’

“I said, ‘You can’t take this because we’re the victims.’ I said, “Come on, you can see this.” He said, “I see that, but I still have an order to take.” The bailiff only relented when he paid the £600.

Mrs Harper said: “Obviously he was just doing his job but if I hadn’t given him the money he would have lifted the vehicle and taken it with the stock from the shop.

“I was quite upset and shocked by the whole situation.

“The bailiff could not have been nicer but TfL’s behavior was disgraceful.

“In October, we started getting more fines for driving in red zones, the ultra-low emission zone, the congestion charge zone and for penalty notices.

“In the photos, it was a similar van to ours, but it had different wheels, a different wheelbase and it was clearly a large Asian man driving. So with each one that came through – and they came thick and fast – I challenged them and sent back photos of our vehicle.

“It took about four months. Hackney and Lambeth councils have admitted that we are the victim here.

“I have letters from Lambeth council saying: ‘We are very sorry. Thanks for letting us know. We can clearly see that this is not your vehicle. Sincerely, all apologies’.

“TfL have never responded to any of my correspondence and you can’t get hold of anyone.

“Despite being given all the information they needed to dismiss these fines, they chose to either ignore them or didn’t get around to processing them and instead decided to take the easy option and to send bailiffs. They just don’t care.

“It was deeply upsetting and frankly embarrassing to have this happen to us on a busy day.

“We’re the victims here, even though we’ve been treated like the damned criminals.”

The shop is owned by Culden Faw Estate and employs 10 part-time staff.

Mrs Harper, who has been manager for four years, said: “We are predominantly middle-aged women trying to run a small post office.

“It is appalling to know that criminals are driving a vehicle using our number plates and despite being told many times, TfL has done absolutely nothing about it.

“What’s even more annoying is that we had to pay a small part of the fine to stop the bailiff from impounding our van, which will wipe out any profit we might have made this month. Sadiq Khan is not welcome in our store.

She added: “I have been running the shop for four years. It’s my child. We call it the groovy little shop. We are a small shop and work hard to support the local community and I found this deeply disturbing.

“But it’s just funny, like you couldn’t get any weirder than the village of Hambleden. It’s not like we’re smoking all the way to London, breaking all the rules.”

Alex Dick, property manager at Culden Faw, said: “The treatment by Transport for London has been appalling.

“Sarah and company have done nothing wrong and in fact have done everything we can to provide them with the evidence that counters the various fines and penalties.

“For some reason we run into a brick wall when dealing with TfL. It’s a disgrace and they should be ashamed of themselves.”

In a statement, Transport for London said: “We are very sorry that Ms Harper was a victim of vehicle cloning.

“We are contacting her to inform her that all fees will be refunded and we apologize for the distress caused.”