M6 toll road fine after barrier had raised?

[dsg]

I have been sent a fine letter from the M6 Toll Customer Services Team stating that they they can see that an attempt to make payment was made at the M6 toll booths but that I proceeded to leave the lane on a red light.

I know exactly the date that this happened as I was travelling to take my elderly father for a cataract operation. I drove up to the fully closed barrier and help my debit card up to the card reader to make payment, and the barrier rose up and I drove through. I neither looked at nor noticed that the light to the side was apparently still red; the barrier rose up after I held my card up to the reader, so I drove on!

Has anyone else experienced this? I spoke to customer services who refuse to listen to my reasoning that because the barrier rose up it was a clear indicator to me that payment had been made and they simply state that because the light was still red, I should not have driven away and am liable for the fee plus extra admin costs as the matter has been sent to a debt collector. I find this so incredible that I actually thought it was a scam which was the reason for my delay; I have used the toll road literally hundreds of times over the years and the barrier has never raised up before unless payment had been made!

[des8]

I think you have a problem

Statutory Instrument 2003 No 2186 The M6 Toll (collection of Tolls) Regulations 2003 states at 3 (4):
(4) When a red light is displayed at a toll-booth or a barrier is blocking the exit from a toll-booth, the driver of a vehicle shall not allow the vehicle to proceed beyond the toll-booth until a green light is displayed and any barrier blocking the exit is raised or a constable or an appointed person allows or directs him to proceed.

[Peadar]

Hi, same happened to me last year and I thought it was so weird it must be a scam too.

When I first called the M6 company I got a terrible person on the line, who clearly wasn't interested in helping. I left that conversation feeling helpless and scammed. After having thought about it for a while, none of it made sense. So I called back to ask some more questions, such as: "how do you know I attempted to make a payment" and "why did the barrier go up"? I was also planning on following this up with a request for the video footage as I wanted to see the evidence, which I think is fair enough really. This time the person was much more reasonable and helpful, and she said something quite interesting. She told me the reason the barrier went up was because I came to a stop too close to it, and it sensed this and automatically lifted so as not to damage my car. Straight away I knew this didn't make any sense as there was one thing I was 100% sure of, and that's that I stopped with my window precisely opposite the payment card-reader machine. So obviously I ask how could I have been too close to the barrier if I stopped beside the card machine. Basically, she said she would get back to me and I never heard back. Very strange. Perhaps worth asking why the barrier raised when it shouldn't have. Seems that's the most relevent question here. Malfunction? Still slightly confused by it all...