Can the police do anything if you remove a clamp from your car wheel??

[Salahudeen]

My mum's car just been clamped :raging: and the police are telling my uncle he can't remove the clamp otherwise they'll arrest him for crimnal damage. However my friend told me it's perfectly legal to remove a private companys clamp as long as you don't damage the clamp. and they can't do nothing even if they're standing there watching as long as he's not damaging it.

[aadil77]

Yeh yeh go for it, I saw it on tv you can remove private company ones for definate, you will end up damaging it somehow by breaking the lock or bending the clamp etc

google it to make sure

btw how long did he leave the car till it got clamped

[Thinker]

My mum's car just been clamped :raging: and the police are telling my uncle he can't remove the clamp otherwise they'll arrest him for crimnal damage. However my friend told me it's perfectly legal to remove a private companys clamp as long as you don't damage the clamp. and they can't do nothing even if they're standing there watching as long as he's not damaging it.

He can remove it but if he damages it in the process it's an offence and I presume these things are made so that they can't be removed without damaging them. Maybe you could have the car lifted onto a low loader, takento a garage where they could remove the whole wheel and clamp. Good luck.

[Snowflake]

GRRR! Can you jack it up and remove the wheel off altogether?

I'm, not sure but wouldn't having it loaded and taken to the garage be more expensive than paying the company who clamped it@Thinker?

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[aadil77]

you probably can change the wheel to a spare tyre then give them the clamp back intact

[NoorInaya]

Wow. I think here in the States only cops use clamps. I would be pretty peeved if a private company clamped my car! If my car is parked where it doesn't belong, they can tow it, but do not clamp it! I feel like that's acting a bit too much like the cops (and being a bit arrogant).

[Salahudeen]

thanks for all replies, my uncle plans to jack the car up and take the tire off. and then remove the clamp and put the tire back on. Don't know how he plans on doing it without damaging the clamp.

Even if he does damage it how can they proove it was him if he just denies it. lol sure it's obvious but there's no proof.

[Pk_#2]

Even if he does damage it how can they proove it was him if he just denies it. lol sure it's obvious but there's no proof.

Just in case he does damage it and then denies it, here's the proof ^

His nephew just blew his cover.

[Snowflake]

^ ;D


What happened Squiggle?

[Santoku]

My mum's car just been clamped :raging: and the police are telling my uncle he can't remove the clamp otherwise they'll arrest him for crimnal damage. However my friend told me it's perfectly legal to remove a private companys clamp as long as you don't damage the clamp. and they can't do nothing even if they're standing there watching as long as he's not damaging it.

Cars are not clamped for no reason. If it was parked legally then the way to get it off is to inform the police that the car was clamped unlawfully and you have every right to remove the clamp and will do so in a set time (make it 2 hours) and if it is damaged then it should not have been there in the first place.

If it was parked illegally what are you grousing for - she did the crime she should pay the penalty. Or is she above the law?

[Snowflake]

Cars are not clamped for no reason.

Oh yes they are sometimes! Maybe you missed Watch Dog, which proved that cars do get illegally clamped by unscrupulous private companies. A woman got hers clamped because her wheel was in the next parking bay!

[جوري]

^^ I was just just going to comment on his/her use of two negatives, but that works too lol..

:w:

[Thinker]

Been thinking about this one and thinking laterally. I strongly suspect that whoever manufactures these clamps makes them in such a way that they cannot be removed without damaging them. And, I suspect that you’ll need an angle grinder to cut off the lock causing severe damage. So cut off the lock and dump the whole thing in the nearest river. When the clampers come back tell them that their company representative has already been and taken £100 in return fro removing the lock, you asked for a receipt and he said it would be posted to you. . . . . Now what are they going to report to the police?

PS you’ll need to make sure they neighbours don’t tell on you.

[Woodrow]

I think it is a time some action be taken against private companies that do this. I support the police when they do so as that involves the prevention of a crime, even though it is a minor crime.

When a private company does it this is denying the lawful owner usage of his property. I think a civil suit against a company that does that is in order.

[Santoku]

Oh yes they are sometimes! Maybe you missed Watch Dog, which proved that cars do get illegally clamped by unscrupulous private companies. A woman got hers clamped because her wheel was in the next parking bay!

Then it was parked unlawfully, if there are parking bays set up then you have to park in the bay provided. If you take up 2 bays you have to pay for 2 bays. Was it on private land? Or public?

And if you read on you would have seen that I said that if it was parked legally then you do have the right to remove the clamp by whatever means you inform the police that it was clamped unlawfully and that you are going to remove the clamp, because legally you should not have been clamped.

[Salahudeen]

She was parked in a restaurant car park that's been shut down for last the 5 years and no body ever goes there. It's an old empty run down building that's falling apart with a car park infront of it that's always empty. She stopped for 2 minutes to run into Greggs and buy a sandwhich literally 2 mins.

When she came out her car was clamped and the guy said "£150 to remove it" then my mum said "What I ain't got that kind of money on me" then he said "it's £250 now look behind you" and my mum looked behind and saw a tow truck.

Then he said "If we have to call a tow truck out price goes up" then my mum went

"WHAT???? THAT TOW TRUCK WAS SITTING THERE WHEN I CAME OUT YOU DIDN'T CALL IT OUT"

then they asked her to pay £250 and she didn't have it on her, so they started putting the chains on my mum's car to tow it away. she rang my uncle in a panic and he told her to say she's getting the money out the car and quickly get in and lock the doors ;D

Because they can't tow the car away if your sitting inside for health and safety reasons. So my mum was sitting in the car refusing to get out then they got back in their truck and called the police.

My uncle came also by then, the police started saying to my mum "If you don't get out we're gonna have to arrest you for disturbing the peace". My mum said "How am I disturbing the peace??? I'm sitting harmlessley and quitely in my car".

Then my uncle started getting :raging: with the police and telling them that they shouldn't even be interfering because it's a civil matter and has nothing to do with them. which they acknowledged but they still stuck around siding with the clampers and employing "scare tacticts" to try and make my mum get out the car.

They started examning her car and said her tires illegal and then they did all the checks on it like chasis number and number plate. Then they started checking my uncle's car. They were just trying to be arseholes to us and blatently siding with the clampers.

What really frustrated us is that they shouldn't have been getting involved because it's a civil matter the only way they could get involved is if crimnal damage was done to the company's clamp, or the car was parked illegally on a public high way and not in a car park.

My mum still refused to get out her car and the clampers were still there in their truck and they also refused to leave without towing the car away so then they both sat there for 2 hours playing the waiting game eventually the clampers got fed up of waiting and just drove off. They expected the car to be there in the morning ;D


Anyway before the police left they said to my uncle "don't touch that clamp after we're gone if you attempt to remove it we'll come back and arrest you"

that was another lie exposing how they openly sided with the clampers to the extent that they were lying about the law. It's perfectly legal for you remove a clamp if the car's not parked illegally on a public highway as long as you don't damage it in the process. What alot of people do is just remove the tire and put the spare tire on and then just drive home. But we couldn't do that cos of police threats and that would be also classified as theft.

So after they went, my uncle jacked the car up and took the tire off then he was fighting with the clamp which was still attached to the car after he took the tire off. Him and his friend were fighting with it for about 1 hour and 30 mins then they gave up and called their mechanic friend.

Their mechanic friend came and removed the clamp in 5 mins the reason they were fighting with it for so long is because they were trying to remove it without damaging it. The mechanic removed it in 5 mins without damaging it ;D he was only 20 aswell.

Then we handed the clamp in at the police station and came home. It was so digusting how the police behaved, even lying on behalve of the clampers and not telling us the law instead lying about it to help the clampers :raging:

The clampers were desperate to tow it away because then it would've gone to £350 because they would've addded storage costs onto the price.

Also the person who owned the car park knew my uncle, my uncle got him on the fone and he told them to remove the clamp and let us go but they said " You entered into a contract with us, you can't just decide to let someone go just because you know them, you have to uphold your end of the contract".


So the person who's land we parked on, was telling them to let us go and he didn't mind but they refused,

thank god we didn't have to pay that money, because we actually don't have that kind of money to spare, would've had to work for 73 hours to pay how much they wanted, it would've been more than £350 cos we wouldn't have been able to pay it straight away and each day that they keep it in storage they increase the price by £40.

[aadil77]

Must have been racist coppers that were assuming you didn't know the law cos your brown. Its good your uncle didn't take notice of their threats, its just a load of balls to get you scared. Alhamdulillah you're lucky to have family and contacts around to help out in situations like that cause when you're alone you're sometimes left with no choice

[Salahudeen]

yeah, my mum was wearing hijaab and abayah aswell and the police behaved alot differently in the past when she never used to wear it.

[Al-Zaara]

Wow, what a story! I'm glad it ended well for your family, elhamdulillah. You gotta be really careful, next time you might not be as lucky.

[Santoku]

She was parked in a restaurant car park that's been shut down for last the 5 years and no body ever goes there. It's an old empty run down building that's falling apart with a car park infront of it that's always empty. She stopped for 2 minutes to run into Greggs and buy a sandwhich literally 2 mins.

When she came out her car was clamped and the guy said "£150 to remove it" then my mum said "What I ain't got that kind of money on me" then he said "it's £250 now look behind you" and my mum looked behind and saw a tow truck.

Then he said "If we have to call a tow truck out price goes up" then my mum went

"WHAT???? THAT TOW TRUCK WAS SITTING THERE WHEN I CAME OUT YOU DIDN'T CALL IT OUT"

then they asked her to pay £250 and she didn't have it on her, so they started putting the chains on my mum's car to tow it away. she rang my uncle in a panic and he told her to say she's getting the money out the car and quickly get in and lock the doors ;D

Because they can't tow the car away if your sitting inside for health and safety reasons. So my mum was sitting in the car refusing to get out then they got back in their truck and called the police.

My uncle came also by then, the police started saying to my mum "If you don't get out we're gonna have to arrest you for disturbing the peace". My mum said "How am I disturbing the peace??? I'm sitting harmlessley and quitely in my car".

Then my uncle started getting :raging: with the police and telling them that they shouldn't even be interfering because it's a civil matter and has nothing to do with them. which they acknowledged but they still stuck around siding with the clampers and employing "scare tacticts" to try and make my mum get out the car.

They started examning her car and said her tires illegal and then they did all the checks on it like chasis number and number plate. Then they started checking my uncle's car. They were just trying to be arseholes to us and blatently siding with the clampers.

What really frustrated us is that they shouldn't have been getting involved because it's a civil matter the only way they could get involved is if crimnal damage was done to the company's clamp, or the car was parked illegally on a public high way and not in a car park.

My mum still refused to get out her car and the clampers were still there in their truck and they also refused to leave without towing the car away so then they both sat there for 2 hours playing the waiting game eventually the clampers got fed up of waiting and just drove off. They expected the car to be there in the morning ;D


Anyway before the police left they said to my uncle "don't touch that clamp after we're gone if you attempt to remove it we'll come back and arrest you"

that was another lie exposing how they openly sided with the clampers to the extent that they were lying about the law. It's perfectly legal for you remove a clamp if the car's not parked illegally on a public highway as long as you don't damage it in the process. What alot of people do is just remove the tire and put the spare tire on and then just drive home. But we couldn't do that cos of police threats and that would be also classified as theft.

So after they went, my uncle jacked the car up and took the tire off then he was fighting with the clamp which was still attached to the car after he took the tire off. Him and his friend were fighting with it for about 1 hour and 30 mins then they gave up and called their mechanic friend.

Their mechanic friend came and removed the clamp in 5 mins the reason they were fighting with it for so long is because they were trying to remove it without damaging it. The mechanic removed it in 5 mins without damaging it ;D he was only 20 aswell.

Then we handed the clamp in at the police station and came home. It was so digusting how the police behaved, even lying on behalve of the clampers and not telling us the law instead lying about it to help the clampers :raging:

The clampers were desperate to tow it away because then it would've gone to £350 because they would've addded storage costs onto the price.

Also the person who owned the car park knew my uncle, my uncle got him on the fone and he told them to remove the clamp and let us go but they said " You entered into a contract with us, you can't just decide to let someone go just because you know them, you have to uphold your end of the contract".


So the person who's land we parked on, was telling them to let us go and he didn't mind but they refused,

thank god we didn't have to pay that money, because we actually don't have that kind of money to spare, would've had to work for 73 hours to pay how much they wanted, it would've been more than £350 cos we wouldn't have been able to pay it straight away and each day that they keep it in storage they increase the price by £40.

Okay firstly I have to say she is in the wrong she parked on private land - it doesn't matter if it is not used, sorry that is the law, it is the same as parking in your front garden. BUT here is a thought was there a warning notice? If there was no warning then they cannot legally clamp her.

If there was a warning then legally they can clamp her and under the current law they can charge pretty much what they want to unclamp. Also the tow away and storage charge is also legal.
Damaging the clamp does come under the heading of criminal damage, for which the police can intervene. And if you are spotted doing it you can then be arested and get a criminal record, many buildings have CCTV around them so they get the evidence and your uncle gets done.

Again on the warning if there is the warning notice there they are not legally obliged to give additional warnings.

Sorry, it is a bummer but if there was a warning notice there then they are in the (legal) right and your family are in the wrong. Similarly if the owner has contracted out to this company to enforce the no parking then it depends on the contract he has signed but most of them give full rights to the clampers and as that is how they make their money they have the right to ignore what he says post event. If he had called beofre the occurence then you would have a case.

As fir the cops, going on what your uncle said you seem to have a couple of twonks there, but I have not heard their side, and one thing I do know is that when things get heated accuracy of recall tends to go out of the window, not lies but perspective.
Personally speaking I have had a very irate man demanding to know why I had made his car alarm go off, (bouncing on the bonnet) he was not doing any harm where he was - the fact that it was in my drive, on my land and blocking my garage doorway seemed to be of no relevance to him, and yes we did make the local paper - he denounced me as a racist B****D, next week the local paper did an article on him with pictures of where his car was parked and a full transcript of his tantrum (Thank you the dictaphone company!!), well it was either that or I sued them!
He tried to get The Voice to take an interest but after I showed them the scene the pictures of his car and played back the recording they declined to publish.

[Salahudeen]

Yeah, there was a mini sign in the corner behind some bushes that had grown over it due to the fact that the restaurant hadn't been maintained for the last 5 years, and we removed the clamp without damaging it so never broke the law there.

Even if he was on CCTV removing it they can't do anything :) cos your allowed to remove it as long as you don't break it. The police dropped by and saw him they told him to drop it off at the police station then they gave him a receipt saying the clamp was in good condition and undamaged.

[Snowflake]

Result!!! Hamdulillah that's all over and your mum's not out of pocket :statisfie

[aadil77]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8212776.stm

'Money-raking'

The AA said the prevalence of "bad and immoral practices" among private parking firms in England and Wales was "shocking and unacceptable", with some people being charged more than £500 to retrieve a towed car.

It cited the case of one woman who it said had pulled up in her car for just a few seconds only for it to be clamped while she sat in it with the engine still running.

bloody hell, they must be like pitstop clampers as soon as you pull up you get clamped