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THE UK'S WORST WHEEL-CLAMPERS
The RAC Foundation conducted a national search to find the UK's worst clamper.
The worst thing to be confronted with when you return to your car.
The wheel-clamper belongs to an ever-increasing list of irritants; traffic wardens, the tax man, Linda Barker...It's not just because of the job that they do (let's face it, they're never going to command the respect nurses or firemen get), in certain cases, it's because of the way that they do their job. Like the building industry, wheel-clamping attracted (and still attracts) a 'cowboy' element.
Often operating from PO Box addresses and using mobile phones,
cowboy clampers show little mercy or compassion to their victims.
In England and Wales, clampers are free to clamp any motorist who
mistakenly parks on private land. Basically they charge any
amount they can get away with.
The behaviour of some of the worst cowboy clampers beggers belief; one firm demanded a woman's gold tooth as payment. In another case, a hearse was clamped outside a church with the coffin still in the back. This has all proved rich fodder for the first 'Dick Turpin Awards' (highway robbery - geddit?) organised by the RAC. The criteria is simple: the clamper who acts in the most vindictive, aggressive or bully-boy manner is the winner.
The RAC Foundation was inundated with responses from throughout the UK when they started the national quest to find the worst clamper. Shocking case studies showed the extremes to which clampers are prepared to go:
UK'S WORST CLAMPERS: FINALISTS
- A Dorset based clamping firm stooped to a new low when clamping a Royal Mail delivery van.
- Staff at a firm in North West London have been reported for telling members of the public that they are allowed to park on the site, but then immediately clamp them if they do.
- A woman reported a company who operate in the Cardiff area. They tried to tow a vehicle away when a young child was in the rear seat. A disabled woman was forced to pay £95 to the same company for parking outside a charity shop, where she was delivering some items.
- A man who broke down on a busy road, pulled into the car park at a local pub. He went to find a phone box so that he could call out the RAC leaving his 82-year-old disabled wife in the vehicle. Clampers appeared immediately and demanded that the woman move the car. Her disability prevented her from doing this so they clamped the vehicle and demanded £80 for its removal.
- A cowboy clamping company in London gave residents staying at a hotel parking permits. But the cowboys still clamped a number of vehicles.
THE UK'S MOST DESPICABLE CLAMPER
The RAC Foundation now intends to send their dossier of the worst cases to the Security Industry Authority so that when they eventually set up their licensing wheel-clamping scheme, they'll be able tO check on the past record of some of the operating firms.
A spokeman observed, "Cowboy clampers have been getting away with legalised mugging
for too long."
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