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.
