Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about several penalty charge notices issued by Transport for London. Transport for London has now cancelled the penalty charge notices and investigation by us is unlikely to achieve anything more for Mr X.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about penalty charge notices (PCNs) Transport for London (TfL) issued to him. He says he had more than one auto-pay account registered with TfL, which caused confusion, and believes he accidentally made payment to the wrong account.
2. Mr X says the matter has caused him distress. He says that TfL should stop allowing customers from having multiple accounts as it makes it harder to identify when payments are made.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide:

• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mr X and TfL.
5. I also considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Since Mr X complained to us, TfL has:
• cancelled the PCNs issued to Mr X between August 2024 and September 2025;
• closed Mr X’s older account so that only his new account remains open; and
• apologised to Mr X for the inconvenience the issue caused and for the time taken to resolve the matter.
7. I am satisfied TfL’s actions are sufficient to remedy injustice caused from any alleged fault. Any outstanding injustice is not significant enough to justify our further involvement and investigation by us is unlikely to achieve anything more.
8. Mr X is also unhappy with the way TfL dealt with his complaint. But it is not a good use of public resources to look at complaint handling alone if we are not going to look at the substantive issue complained about. We will therefore not investigate this issue separately.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is unlikely further investigation would achieve anything more for him.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman