MERSEYFLOW are investigating claims a man who received a fine for crossing the Mersey Gateway despite paying the toll charge was told by staff to “take it up with the police” when he complained.

Taxi driver Bernie Langshaw has slammed the company’s “shocking customer service” over their handling of a complaint he made yesterday morning.

The 67-year-old was stung with two fixed penalty notices on Wednesday despite paying the £2 toll through Payzone at a local corner shop.

He claims that when he first got in touch with Merseyflow’s customer service team, they told him Payzone must have rejected his payment, which can happen if the vehicle registration number is entered incorrectly.

However, when Bernie contacted Payzone, they denied rejecting the payment and said the issue was a recurring problem to do with Merseyflow.

Payzone has confirmed that this was the case.

Bernie claims that when he got in touch with the tolling company for the second time, a member of staff admitted they were having trouble accepting Payzone payments, but said there was nothing they could do.

He claims the spokesperson told him that despite paying the toll charge, he would have to make a representation or contact the police to get the matter resolved.

Bernie, from Neston, said: “They are clearly aware of this problem so you’d think they’d be concerned. But when I asked if there was anybody else I could speak to they said no.

“I had done everything right and but somehow I’m left with having to take the matter to court or waste police time, even though I paid the toll and have evidence to show for it.

“The attitude they have is that if they make a mistake, it’s not their fault and Joe public will have to pay for it.

“Merseyflow’s customer service is shocking. No one will accept responsibility.”

The standard protocol for appealing a fixed penalty notice from Merseyflow is to make a representation to Halton Council.

If that is rejected, motorists can make an appeal to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, although all current appeals are on hold following a TPT ruling that said the toll charges could be illegal because they weren’t specified clearly enough in Halton Council’s road charging order.

Before the TPT tuling, a Freedom of Information request revealed no appeals had found in favour of Merseyflow when taken to the transport watchdog since the bridge opened last October.

A spokesperson from Merseyflow issued a comment on Bernie’s case confirming that there was an error with accepting the payzone payment on their side, and that they had cancelled his fine.

The spokesperson said: “After investigating, Merseyflow found there was a technical issue with the customer’s vehicle record in regards to this payment, this has now been resolved. We will cancel the PCN and allocate the payment to his crossings.

“We will also review the call recordings against our internal quality process.”