A NEWPORT office worker was slapped with a London traffic congestion charge fine, despite, he says, never having driven his car through the capital.

Tony Lawrence, 33, was fined £40 for allegedly driving in the restricted zone in his Nissan Micra without paying the charge.

The penalty warned that if the fine was not paid within a fortnight then it would double.

The bill would then rise by another £40 two weeks after that, then rise by another £40 in a further two weeks.

Mr Lawrence and wife Tracey claim it could not possibly be their car because they were both at work.

The car was allegedly snapped by cameras on the afternoon of Wednesday, August 27.

Mr Lawrence works for Legal and General, in Cardiff, and said: "I find it very strange. I have never even driven my car in London and neither has my wife.

"Now we have been told to provide the Greater London Authority with proof beyond all doubt that we were not there."

The couple, from The Turnstiles, Shaftesbury, obtained letters from their bosses confirming they were at work - not in London.

Mr Lawrence said: "I do not know how this could have happened. It's a mystery.

"Whether it is a case of car cloning or just a simple mistake typing in the wrong number plate, it wasn't us."

Transport for London run the scheme and a spokesman said if the penalty was a mistake, there were a number of possible explanations, the most likely being human error in the notification process.

He said: "Someone could've put in a number plate which is one digit wrong. The most common mistake is putting a one instead of a zero."

Although he could not comment on individual cases, the spokesman urged Mr and Mrs Lawrence to follow the correct redress procedure.

He said: "Clearly we apologise if there has been a mistake."

The spokesman said car cloning, when a car's colour and registration number is duplicated, does happen, but cases were extremely rare.