WHEN Darren Heslop wrongly received a bill after being "caught" on London's congestion cameras, the very least he expected was an apology.

What he got was a second fine.

Mr Heslop became the third North Yorkshire resident to have a letter drop through his letterbox demanding he pay a fine for dodging the fees last month.

After filling in a form pointing out he was at home in Thornton-le-Moor and that his Kia Sedona was parked on the drive at the time of the alleged offence, he received a reply, notifying him that proceedings would be dropped.

The family then flew off for a holiday in America. When they got home, the London Transport Authority had written again, demanding they pay another fine for breaching the congestion charge rules.

This time, their car was supposed to have been in Gray's Inn Road, near King's Cross, on April 10. Mr Heslop is now planning to write to London Mayor Ken Livingstone demanding an assurance it will not happen again.

"It's ridiculous," said Mr Heslop yesterday.

"I've been on the phone for two hours trying to sort this out. I think we deserve an apology from Ken Livingstone himself."

A spokesman for the London Transport Authority admitted Mr Heslop would have to fill in the same forms as he did last time to have proceedings against him quashed, but apologised for the inconvenience.

"Unfortunately, in a small number of cases, we are finding this sort of thing is happening when data is fed into our computers.

"With a scheme of this size, we have to accept there are bound to be teething problems. I wish I could say Mr Heslop's was the only one."