AA Zone

One of these cowboys clamped my sister last week. She is a health visiter working in Acton, W London. She parked next to a road on what looked like the public highway. There was no sign in the bays but further down the road was a sign saying private parking. It appeared this sign meant the block of flats behind. The cowboys turned up and clamped and pretended that they had called out a tow truck so they could up the "fine" to £170. This is legalised mugging. She said she would not have parked there if there was a sign. But becasuse this is on private land there is no right of appeal. These cowboys need to be outlawed.

If a car is parked where it souldn't be and is causing a problem, you would want to get the driver to move it, or the council to fine them, but if you put a clamp on it then you're obviously happy for it to stay there, so it's not causing a real problem in the first place, so why clamp it then?

If it's on private land, install a fence and gate to stop access in the first place.

There problem solved so we can now get rid of all wheel clamps!

(and no, I've never been clamped)

The person who applies the clamp is guilty of the criminal offence known as 'twocking', regardless of where you are parked. Even though the vehicle has not physically changed location, you have technically been deprived of its use, whether temporarily or permanetly. They have effectively taken it without your consent and the incident should be reorted to the police. The police may do nothing as most do not completely understand the law. You can always take out a private prosecution but, as is the usual case with British law, you need to be able to afford to prove your case and get justice. I'm afraid that in the meantime these 'cowboys' will continue to get away with it.

One point that should be remembered and addressed is the criminal background of clampers. I think people would be surprised by the violent and dishonest history of some clampers. I think there should be a criminal records check on anyone working for a clamping company, and nobody with convictions or on bail for dishonesty, violence, or disorder, should be allowed to work in that role.

How else can the public be assured that protocols are complied with properly? Or that the road-rage incidents that can be caused by clamping are not exacerbated by the propensity for clampers to be intimidating?

You are right that the clamper should have an SIA licence which checks basic criminal record, however there is some evidence that they pass the one licence around the merry band of clampers.

Other clampers who can not get licences due to their criminal records are nowing taking photos of cars, getting your details from DVLA, and sending out fines which look liked Fixed Penalty Notices. Yet another scam.

I'm glad I live somewhere that cowboy clampers don't exist - you folk south of the border are getting treated very unfairly

Both my wife and I attended a funeral in Worcester last year and being total strangers to the area were unsure where to park as there was limited parking at the church. Our granddaughter offered to show us a car park behind the local Bingo Hall. When we returned to drive to the burial site we had been clamped. The clampers duely arrived and demanded £290.00 cash to release my vehicle stating the tow-away lorry had been requested. By the time we had scraped together the money we knew we had missed the burial. These thieves gloated over our misfortune and even barred our exit for a while, even though they knew of our destination.

looking at from the other side I am happy (occasionally) to see clampers. Where I live it became impossible to park in our own car park. The car park is well signed Private Residents Only has an open gate going into the estate where all the flats are and daily we'd see the same cars come in, park and drive off in the evening, all to save themselves £10/day parking in proper town car parks or use the park-and-ride.

Ask them not to park here and you get a mouthfull of abuse. Now that every car without a permit is clamped, the overflow carpark is always totally empty, that just shows the level of abuse that we had to put up with where I had to go and park in town and pay for it because of all the ignorant motorists who stole from us.

Good on 'em and boo to the ignorant ones who preferred to steel and force the issue. Oh, it was really worth seeing it the first morning. When a clamp was put on and the driver told the clamper to f-off the just smiled sweetly and towed the car away. Ten cars in the first hour who shouldn't have been there and the same Saturday morning. Now we just need a visit Friday and Saturday night for the pubbers and clubbers and we can live our lives normally.

As a clamper I must pass comment, the majority of people act ignorant, stating I didnt see the signs, I ask if you were a land owner and you could not get access to park your own vehicles due to the everyday motorist who chooses to ignore the warning notices and park, be it in a private road conveniently or near a shopping centre or if you have an allocated parking bay in a residential developement, you come home from work and you cant park your car and have to pay a fee to park on the public highway, how angry would you be? I ask all persons, did you see the signs (of which are very prominent)? did you read the signs? did you park your car there? you probably would have answered yes to them all, so exactly whose fault is it that you were clamped, yes , yours, If you choose to park on private property ignoring the signs it is down to you. The AA have a deicated web page advising about parking on private land, the citezens advice have the same. Most people choose to take a chance when parking and unfortunately get caught out. All the anger and frustration in my eyes is unwarrented and through no fault of your own. IWhen parking my vehicle I always adhere to the parking rules and conditions. Some people park on private land to save a few pennies from the parking meter and get slapped with a clamp.

However I do agree that the fines should be capped and ticketing and clamping straight after is wrong. Are you aware that many many ticketing companies are now sprouting up as you dont need a SIA license and it is not regulated, rather like locksmiths! If you cant get an SIA license you then go into setting up a ticketing organisation, you dont need a licence, dont get the confrontation, gain access to DVLA records and charge a fortune. Maybe if the individual were to come out clamping vehicles for a day the attitude towards the job, the land owner may change.

I recently had my car towed from a 'private’ car park on a public road in Leeds city centre. The company which towed my car was JP Parking Consultants. The road or car park was not marked private and the signage present was not clear, especially in the dark when the incident occurred. I could only read the sign when I returned and found my vehicle missing and started looking for any information in the vicinity of where my car was parked.

I had to pay a total of 430 pounds to get my car back. This was broken down as follows:
- 240 pound towing fee
- 100 pound clamp release fee
- 2 x 45 pound storage fee. The 45 pound fee was for each day or part thereof. The car was towed at approx 22h00 which means it ended up being 22.5 pounds per hour of storage which is just ridiculous.

Furthermore, the back of my vehicle which was 3 weeks old at the time was scratched, however JP Parking Consultants took no responsibility for it and I could not prove it by inspecting the tow truck for red paint off my car as the compound was locked and had 18ft high gates and brick walls with broken glass along the top. You could also hear numerous very hungry and angry dogs inside.

I had no other choice but to pay the fine as I needed my car for work that day. I requested an invoice from the company and received a hand written invoice which did not have VAT included and did not have an invoice number. When I questioned this I was advised that the company did not need to include VAT on such a service and that an invoice number was not required. Both of which did not make any sense to me and left me questioning how legitimate a business JP Parking Consultants is!


Do you know of any appeals which have succeded against a similar case?

Which laws govern the operation of such companies on public roads? I cannot find any reference to this on the Leeds city council website.

How do these companies set their prices?

What are the rules which govern signage and its legibility?

Your assistance would be greatly appreciated.


I would be more than happy to start an appeal - if there any lawyers out there who have been clamped and towed and know how much it hurts then please sing out!

Cheers