Lying copper just cost us £100

[StevieboyTD]

Had a call from the wife, she's been clamped while doing a delivery.

I get there and find it's a new build without any visible parking spaces, i assumed there were around the back of the buildings. She's seen the "no parking" sign and yellow hatching and parked 5m away from it half on a kerb so she wasn't blocking the access to the rest of the site. (would show it on google maps, but the images just show the building site!)

from her -
She gets out of the car, walks 5 doors down the row (road doesn't go that far) with a big red food delivery bag and gets back to the car to find they're doing up the padlock on the clamp.

Clampers were giving her hassle "pay up now or we're taking the car, etc" so she called the police.

On the way there i ring and arrange a recovery truck to take the car home for me (taking the clamp off without damaging it is quite legal).

The biggest idiot copper in the world shows up and sides with the clampers! "you're not allowed to touch the clamp in any way, it's criminal damage", "you're not allowed to take it off yourself, it's criminal damage", "you're not allowed to tow it away, it's theft", etc, etc.

The residents who received the delivery show up wondering what the noise is about. They've asked my wife to bring food to them, she's allowed to be here. "Have to pay the ticket and appeal", "but we're the residents, we asked her tom come here, she has our permission to be on the estate", "have to pay the ticket and appeal", etc.

My recovery truck show up and leaves after getting the heave-ho from the copper.

Clampers start threatening "the moment i make this call to our tow truck the price goes up", "umm, no it's doesn't work like that, until the truck gets here, you can't charge us anything extra as you haven't done anything extra", copper chips in "oh, they can".

Wifes boss shows up with the £100 they wanted to take the clamp off and they fill in the paperwork. All this time they've been refusing to show their SIA ID "you've got the company name, what else do you need", copper was fine with this too.

Residents have given us the details of their site management company to take it up with and their contact details too to explain that they wanted her on the site and that she was delivering stuff to residents, which would then be part of the appeal to get the funds back, but i'm not holding my breathe.

Wife just forwarded me a pic she took on her phone of the area, mobile phone flash so the lighting isn't great, but obviously the signs are displayed and the area is well lit anyway. (i've tweaked the levels as best i could)

Red is the "keep access clear" sign by the hatch marks, green is the clamping warning sign.


From what we can tell they must have followed her onto the site and parked up as she walked down to the customers house.

Absolutely ****ing livid, nearly clocked one of the cocky ****ers with my stick.

[StevieboyTD]

She's just got home, got a pic on her better camera (which she forgot was in the glovebox), one of the residents has told her the visitors parking area hasn't been built yet!

Better pic, the clamping sign is now clearly visable under flash photography.

[steve_earwig]

Ffs, is she meant to walk a quarter of a mile with it? I hope you got the idiot copper's badge number. Complaints to local council, mp, police and the local newspapers should be interested too I reckon.

[DaiRees]

That's just idiotic. As Steve said, get the local press in there and write to your MP as well as complaining to the police and site owners. As much fuss as possible!

[Blue406]

.....She's seen the "no parking" sign and yellow hatching and parked 5m away from it half on a kerb so she wasn't blocking the access to the rest of the site..........

Ok, parking 5m away from a no parking sign is begging for trouble. Whether or not you park on the road or halfway up a path (which incidentaly is for pedestrians, not vehicles!). I fully support the efforts to enforce no parking restrictions. There are far too many idiots on the road who park where they shouldn't and cause problems with traffic. (Not that I'm calling your wife an idiot!).

However, the attitude of the clampers and copper stink, and it does sound like the assholes were sitting waiting and gave your wife no time to correct her mistake. (Shouldn't clampers wait 5 mins or so?). I'm just glad it's illegal for anyone but the police to clamp a vehicle in Scotland!

Once the residents came out and confirmed she was there at their request, the clamp should have been removed, copper gives wife a ticking off for parking against restrictions and everyone goes home.

[StevieboyTD]

My poor descriptive skills, the "no parking sign" related to the hatched area you can see in the above flash photograph, it to ensure access to the rest of the site isn't blocked.

She was parked about 5m back from where the picture was taken.

[Welly]

Unless I'm wrong (or the pics aren't too good) then I'd also complain of the lack of street lighting on the partially-completed development. Firstly the clampers have hidden in the dark and then you can't see the signs and markings properly to warn you.

It'll become a no-go area in the end (for delivery drivers and the like) which'll affect the residents ordering the stuff they need

[steve_earwig]

I fully support the efforts to enforce no parking restrictions.

That's the point though, in this case it's very obviously just a licence to print money - make the areas that you can't park in first so people have no choice but to park there, then rush in with your clamp - easy money! Of course, anyone with half an ounce of common decency would have only put the restrictions up after they'd made the car park but then that wouldn't bring in any cash now would it.

[puggy]

After the way a friend of mine was treated by clampers i consider them to
be nothing but a bunch of thieves who seem to revel in the misery and
inconvinience they cause to drivers, who in general ,are law abiding people .
It's time our government adopted the ways of Scotland and outlawed these
people and leave clamping to the police .
Either that or turn a blind eye while people beat the low life bastards till
they are nearly dead !!!

As above obtain as much publicity as you can and i hope someone who is in
a position to do something about it see's sense !!

[eoin27]

Another horrible clamping strory. I fantasize about modifying my car so that when I park it, its impossible to tow or clamp it.

The dream goes as follows:

**Upon locking the car, the suspension hunkers down and the wheels pull in well under the arches leaving absolutely no space to fit the clamp. An small but effective electric current runs through the alloys. Upon attempting to clamp, a deafening alarm sounds and does some right damage to clampers ears if they stick around too long**

[teamster1975]

Sorry to hear that Stevie. My wife was collared when she parked for 2 minutes in a residential area. She had our then 6 week old son with her and got back to the car to find the carnts finishing up. Obviously she had no means to pay so I had to ring their head office and cough up £165. I was working down in Bournemouth and she was in Reading; if I'd have been there I bloody would have punched their lights out.

[steve_earwig]

Another horrible clamping strory. I fantasize about modifying my car so that when I park it, its impossible to tow or clamp it.

The dream goes as follows:

**Upon locking the car, the suspension hunkers down and the wheels pull in well under the arches leaving absolutely no space to fit the clamp. An small but effective electric current runs through the alloys. Upon attempting to clamp, a deafening alarm sounds and does some right damage to clampers ears if they stick around too long**

I had something similar, Citroen BX, let the suspension all the way down and there's no way you can get a clamp on one. I even had some guy threaten to clamp it once, I'd parked up in an empty carpark outside a shop in Waltham Cross, I was only popping in to the shop next door for some fags (ffs) but he came out brandishing his clamp. I said I'd only be a few seconds but he wasn't having any of it, so I let the suspension down and told him to go ahead but if he left one scratch on my car I'd sue him. I took my time and he wasn't there when I came out the tobacconists

[sirwiggum]

Another horrible clamping strory. I fantasize about modifying my car so that when I park it, its impossible to tow or clamp it.

The dream goes as follows:

**Upon locking the car, the suspension hunkers down and the wheels pull in well under the arches leaving absolutely no space to fit the clamp. An small but effective electric current runs through the alloys. Upon attempting to clamp, a deafening alarm sounds and does some right damage to clampers ears if they stick around too long**

I had something similar, Citroen BX, let the suspension all the way down and there's no way you can get a clamp on one. I even had some guy threaten to clamp it once, I'd parked up in an empty carpark outside a shop in Waltham Cross, I was only popping in to the shop next door for some fags (ffs) but he came out brandishing his clamp. I said I'd only be a few seconds but he wasn't having any of it, so I let the suspension down and told him to go ahead but if he left one scratch on my car I'd sue him. I took my time and he wasn't there when I came out the tobacconists

I remember when I had the Xantia, parking outside an entertainment complex on a Sunday morning to view a boat for a few minutes, where parking clamping is enforced (usually on concert nights), putting the suspension down to potentially make their life difficult.

Should have wired the steel wheels to the battery and made the alarm hyper sensitive as per Eoins dream

[teamster1975]

Should have wired the steel wheels to the battery and made the alarm hyper sensitive as per Eoins dream

Reminds me of the car alarm advert in Robocop!

[eoin27]

Or from Max and Paddy, with Max's customized alarm message.... "Get back ya bas**rd, or I'll break your legs"