Got clamped earlier - surely this isn't legal...

[xcessive]

Hi

I got clamped earlier at a local cinema/night club complex car park.

Normally clamping is fine if you leave your car parked up somewhere illegally but i wasn't parked illegally and had to pay a £120 release fee or else my car would be towed away and impounded!

This is what happened to me tonight...

I drove into the car park and drove into a bay, my engine was still running and i was about to make a phone call.
Next thing a white Citroen Berlingo van parks behind me (side ways and blocks me in, there is a kerb and wall infront) i couldnt drive away.

A large bloke gets out the van with a clamp and clamps my car! I was still in it with engine running!
I must have been parked up for about 30 seconds!

The bloke then tells me i have to pay up £120 tonight or else my car gets towed away and impounded.
I have no choice but to pay up.

Surely this isnt legal.

The place i parked up usually has young 'cruisers' parked up and generally causing no trouble.
However, i was with 2 friends (all in my car) and wasn't taking part in any crowd gathering at all as i was parked up at the other side of the car park.

The clamping bloke gave me a receipt and the reason for me being clamped was 'Clamped for crowd gathering'.

I phoned up the local police station later on and they said that they have had numerous complaints about this same thing happening.

The thing that bugs me the most was that my engine was still running and i had only been parked up for about 30 seconds!!

Is there anything i can do about this?

Thanks

 

[Dave85]

holy mackeral thats shocking.
not much help with regards to what to do, but thats disgusting behaviour..did he say anything else to you?

 

[Violent-J]

Nothing you can do now, you've already informed the police of this scandalous cowboy activity. What you *should* have done is got out of your car and been a man, and not sit there while some fat podger clamps your car before you've even had chance to get out and go and get a ticket. I would never let that happen to me, I would have jumped out, physically blocked him from clamping my vehicle, tell him to move from blocking my car or else I'll move his van for him and then if he wanted to get aggressive put him on the deck.

 

[Stellios]

Didnt the government implement a solution where you have to be licenced to be allowed to clamp cars? I heard something about that, but dont know whether it actually happened.

 

[chris06]

I would have jumped out, physically blocked him from clamping my vehicle, tell him to move from blocking my car or else I'll move his van for him and then if he wanted to get aggressive put him on the deck.

Thats pretty much the same thing I would have done tbh.

Especially as there were more than just you in the car. Did the police say they would do anything?

 

[Amleto]

If it's a council clamping then you might be able to do something about it. If the council out-sourced the owrk, then it would have to be through the small claims I would imagine.

 

[Mr.T]

I remember seeing that on the news as well.

If someone clamps your car are they actually allowed to take it away? What is stopping someone calling up a friend with their own removal truck and getting the car dropped home or something, with the clamp still on?

 

[Jonny ///M]

Should have taken the clamp and clamped his ******* van!

/keyboard gangster

You could have at least physically stopped him but i know things happen quick when your left like WTF. Does the place have CCTV you could check to show how gay the guy was being?

 

[andi]

Nothing you can do now, you've already informed the police of this scandalous cowboy activity. What you *should* have done is got out of your car and been a man, and not sit there while some fat podger clamps your car before you've even had chance to get out and go and get a ticket. I would never let that happen to me, I would have jumped out, physically blocked him from clamping my vehicle, tell him to move from blocking my car or else I'll move his van for him and then if he wanted to get aggressive put him on the deck.

Yeah! And then smack him with your keyboard for good measure!

 

[Stellios]

Yeah! And then smack him with your keyboard for good measure!

So your telling me that if you parked up and hadnt even turned the engine off, and a guy parks in front of you and just gets out to clamp your cars youd be nice and cool about it? Im not the most aggressive person ever, but im pretty sure id not be saying "oh thank you very much".

 

[Violent-J]

Yeah! And then smack him with your keyboard for good measure!

What a usefull post, I'm fed up of this *keyboard warrior* nonsense, yes it's easy to give it the big un on the net but members of this forum come from every section of society, not everyone here is a spineless uber nerd, when someone talks about when they stood up and didn't take no **** they get such responses and it's tiresome.

 

[andi]

So your telling me that if you parked up and hadnt even turned the engine off, and a guy parks in front of you and just gets out to clamp your cars youd be nice and cool about it? Im not the most aggressive person ever, but im pretty sure id not be saying "oh thank you very much".

Crap no, I'd have kicked up a fuss, it was the tone of the post I was amused by

 

[Mackass]

Nothing you can do now, you've already informed the police of this scandalous cowboy activity. What you *should* have done is got out of your car and been a man, and not sit there while some fat podger clamps your car before you've even had chance to get out and go and get a ticket. I would never let that happen to me, I would have jumped out, physically blocked him from clamping my vehicle, tell him to move from blocking my car or else I'll move his van for him and then if he wanted to get aggressive put him on the deck.

If that happened to me, I would have done exactly that. You can't just let those tossers clamp you and milk you for easy cash, should have told them to beat it or else.

 

[Dave85]

I was going to put something about cctv in my first post but got distracted.
If its a cinema perhaps they will have a nice cctv video of him blocking you in then clamping you, in a god dam carpark.

take to police trace to company and hopefully they would get a huge fine.
unfortunatly the chances of that happening are nill.

 

[xcessive]

I just couldnt believe what the bloke was doing.
I did get out the car once he started putting the clamp on.
No point in me getting aggressive. There is CCTV there and 2 security blokes turned up as well. All 4 blokes (2 security and 2 clampers) were huge.
Getting aggressive would have been pointless.

I did try and drive away (by doing a 5 point turn) but it wouldnt have worked.
I would have either reversed into the white van or hit a post infront.

I have truely been shafted.

 

[willd58]

my thought has been made redundant.

 

[xcessive]

The clamper had a yellow arm band and seemed to be legal.
Shall i even bother appealing to the claming company?

EDIT: I think the Odeon car park is privatly owned so the clamping company wouldnt be associated with the council and so would be a private firm.

 

[Mackass]

The clamper had a yellow arm band and seemed to be legal.
Shall i even bother appealing to the claming company?

Ofcourse.

You didn't do anything wrong, why should you pay a £120 fine?

 

[Mr.T]

You could have just gone back and forward with the car (inches), he would have struggled to put clamp on then.

Also if your story is true to the word, then the guy already started the agression. I mean he blocked you in, and then effectivly stole 120 pounds off you, whilist threatening to remove your car! I'm normally pretty passive but that would not fly here without some sort of descent. Not because of the money so much, just the attitude of the person, who obviously thinks he can get away with that, which it seems he can!

 

[Trojan]

What have the police said?

I'm fairly certain that it's illegal to clamp a vehicle whilst the driver is still in it. I can't seem to find any decent websites to back this up however so I could be wrong.

In any event however, there would be absolutely no way on this earth that I would pay anything had the same happened to me, especially if I hadn't parked illegally. I'd simply lock the doors, refuse to get out of the car and contact the police. The clampers can't tow the car whilst you're sitting in it so you're pretty much safe until the police turn up.