Plans fail to deter clampers
GOVERNMENT proposals to regulate the car clamping industry are woefully inadequate and will not stop cowboy operators, Birmingham’s trading standards chief has claimed.
The Home Office is currently consulting on four options for regulation of the wheel-clamping industry following a major launch by former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith in April.
Calls for regulation come amid claims that clampers, with an easily-secured licence, can immobilise a vehicle, tow it away and hold it to ransom – often for hundreds of pounds.
The discussions also follow the arrest in Birmingham on Thursday of four people suspected of running a rogue car-clamping operation.
Police and trading standards officers arrested the owners and employees of Digbeth-based National Parking Control on suspicion of conspiracy to commit blackmail.
Officers also seized property, including a tow truck, from the company’s compound in Liverpool Street.
The four have since been released on bail. They include company owner Gary Southall, 48, and his partner Victoria Charlton, who were arrested at her house in Moseley.
Birmingham’s head of Trading Standards, Chris Neville, believes the laws are far too lax and wants strict regulation of the industry including a ‘reasonable’ £100 limit on fines.
He says that often warning signs are inadequate, the fees are on average an extortionate £400, the companies will only accept cash and there is no right of appeal.
Shadier companies also use entrapment techniques to snare drivers.
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