Houston man billed thousands due to duplicate license plate on Dallas toll roads

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Costly commutes are nothing new for drivers, but for Joe Sanders, he says he's getting charges for roads he didn't even drive on.

"Over the course of about four to five years, just constantly getting dings every week, multiple times, sometimes for trailers, sometimes for just a vehicle. It would normally originate in Dallas, but then it would come through HCTRA," Sanders said.

He said a $196 bill from January is just one example of the big bucks he said he was expected to pay, all because of his "SANDERS" license plate.

The bill also shows a very similar SANDERS plate, but while his says "Lone Star State," the other says "Dallas Cowboys."

It's something, regardless of the headache, he says he wants to keep.

SEE ALSO: Only on 13: Driver with spoofed vanity plate runs up toll bill for driver with real plate

The driver of the real license plate on his car says the other driver is racking up tolls under his name.

"It just gets bothersome and annoying when there's really nothing you can do other than completely blacklisting the plates and getting rid of them, which I don't want to do. It's my last name," Sanders said.

ABC13 also reached out to the North Texas Tollway Authority, which manages the toll roads in the Dallas area. They sent the following response:

"We can't add any blocks for SANDERS in our tolling system for fear of disrupting/confusing the proper use of the license plate for tolling across the state.

We have notified law enforcement with our findings about the continued use of the older, invalid version of the SANDERS license plate in hopes they can access TxDMV records and contact the previous owner and prevent this issue from recurring."

Sanders said he's now receiving, but adds this is all still taking a toll on him.

"Currently, they are refunding through an intermediary, but NTTA still bills. It hits my count at the end of the month. Normally, it goes back to that intermediary. I'm not too sure if they're refunding a full amount, I'm not too sure if they're refunding a partial amount," Sanders said.

ABC13 also contacted the driver in Dallas who had previously registered the same license plate, but has not heard back.

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