Cowboy clampers get the boot

Clampers trained in vehicle immobilisation skills?

By PH Staff / Thursday, 5 May 2005 / Loading comments

Clampers get conflict resolution training?

Clamping on private land without a licence has just become a criminal offence. From today anyone clamping, towing away or blocking vehicles for a fee will need a licence.

The RAC Foundation claimed a long overdue victory for motorists and for its campaign as, over the last eleven years, it has called for statutory regulations to limit the excesses of private clamping companies.

Excesses have included:

Clampers demanding a lady’s gold tooth or sexual favours in lieu of payment.
Clampers clamping a hearse with a body in the back.
Clampers in Doncaster threatening to hold a mothers' three-year-old daughter hostage until she collected £60 from a bank.
In London, a motorist moved his car under direction from the police who were investigating a murder at the original site where his car was parked. He was then promptly clamped.
In Portsmouth a man was clamped when he stopped because the clampers lorry had run into the back of him.
A clamper in Essex forced a heavily pregnant lady to walk two miles to a cash machine and back to pay him the clamp release fee of £75.
A clamper in Devon preyed on an elderly disabled lady and her husband, after they parked their car for five minutes, displaying a disabled badge whilst going to the post office to collect the lady’s pension. On their return the clamper bullied the lady into handing over her pension to remove the clamp.

Now, some four years after the legislation to licence clampers was passed, unscrupulous cowboy clampers are finally being reined in. Ruled to be "extortion and theft" in Scotland since 1992, wheel clamping on private land was banned overnight.

However, until yesterday, in England and Wales, clampers have been allowed to operate unchecked, charging whatever amounts they liked and often using threats and intimidation. As of today, anyone found clamping without a Security Industry Authority (SIA) licence could incur significant fines of up to £5,000 and up to five years in prison.

The Foundation has issued advice as to how this new licensing scheme affects motorists and what they should do if they are clamped on private land:

All SIA licensed clampers will have had to be trained to:

Know when to clamp and when not to clamp
Understand the legislation concerning vehicle immobilisation
Behave in a responsible manner
Provide effective customer care
Avoid, resolve and defuse conflict.

The conditions of the licence state that any vehicle immobiliser must not clamp/block/tow away a vehicle if:

A valid disabled badge is displayed
It is a marked emergency service vehicle in use

When a release fee is collected, the vehicle immobiliser must provide a receipt which should include:

The location where the vehicle was clamped or towed
Their name and signature
Their licence number
The date

If motorists are clamped on private land, they should first ask to see the clamper’s SIA licence. If they don’t have one, report them to the SIA -- contact details below. If the clamper won’t release your car you should contact the police.

If the clamper does have a licence, and you feel they have behaved in an inappropriate way, you should first take the matter up with them. If they fail to resolve your complaint, you may have a case in civil law against them. You should contact your local Citizen’s Advice Bureau or Trading Standards Officer for advice.

The Foundation will be closely monitoring the success of the licensing scheme, and hopes that it will not need to repeat its annual Dick Turpin Award for the UK’s worst clamper in 2006.

Edmund King, Executive Director of the RAC Foundation, said, "The licensing of clampers is a victory for motorists. Cowboy clampers have been allowed to get away with their unscrupulous activities for far too long.

"Up until now many motorists have felt that they have no rights and no option but to hand over often extortionate amounts of money to the clampers. Now any rogue clamper operating without a licence faces a large fine and even imprisonment.

"After our long campaign against cowboy clampers some of the outlaws are finally being reined in."