Petition to ban Wheel clampers

rictic

Hi People
sorry to bother you with a mundane item.
I have started an online petition to outlaw private clamping firms and would appreciate all and sundry to sign it, I'd also request that you pass details of this onto all that you know. Clamping is legalised extortion with sums of up to £500 being demanded and or sexual favours, the bit that hacked me when I was clamped was they only wanted money (£352), I'm well upset, my body's as good as the next one when abused.

petitions.pm.gov.uk/ou...-clamping/

fudgeukraine

Just a suggestion but there wouldn't be a need for clampers if people didn't park on private land or read car park notices correctly..

(alternately move to Scotland - nice and illegal up here

hollydays

any "private" clamping people want to do is their own business.

mpython

Welcome to the forums Rictic. Good luck with your petition.

I've heard of large fees for clamping (which can be challenged & won back in the courts), but not sexual favours. Is this an urban myth? & surely is sexual assualt which is already illegal?

Do you really mean banning all clampers? My wife is disabled and its just become a joke to try & find a disabled parking space that an able bodied driver hasn't 'borrowed' because its too far to walk from the empty ones.

rictic

Hi
The petition is to ban Private clampers or for further regulation to control their excesses. Sums of up to £500 are being demanded. That is way out of line. Once licensed they are back to the excesses of before licensing was introduced.
licensing has changed nothing.
In Scotland private clamping is illegal and has been since 1992, it is classed as extortion and theft. How can it be a crime of extortion and theft in one part of the UK and not in the rest.
As for sexual favors the RAC and AA believe it goes on.

mpython

Thanks Rictic, if its private clampers then I'll defintely have a look at the petition.

I've searched both AA & RAC websites & neither has anything about Private Clampers let alone sexual favours. Where did you get this from?

rictic

it was a google search on wheel clamping that brought up an RAC/AA page from around two years ago aound the time that the licensing took effect.

http://www.racfoundation.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=292&Itemid=35

Excesses have included:

* Clampers demanding a lady’s gold tooth or sexual favours in lieu of payment.
* Clampers who regularly charge £523 for clamping/towing.
* 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.



There are many more examples of bad behaviour listed there.

hollydays

Yes,but if you read article ,those particular events happened BEFORE licensing.

rictic

Do you really think that scammers and wideboys will change just because of a toothless law??
Do you really think that gangster wannabes that have a lucrative line of income that has been semi legitimised will give up sharp practices?
Did you look at the linked page from the page I gave you?

Extortion is extortion wether it is practised in Scotland or England, next thing someone will be claiming rape, Robbery assault and murder are different between England and Scotland. In Scotland it's a crime but in England it's just one of those things that happens.

http://www.racfoundation.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=292&Itemid=35


ew regulations aimed at curbing the worst excesses of cowboy clampers and introduced only twelve weeks ago are already being flouted according the RAC Foundation today (5).

The RAC Foundation warned Government prior to the introduction of the new legislation it would not work without a strict and enforceable code of practice.

Those suggestions were not heeded. Following a recent undercover operation by Sky News which exposed abuses of the rules by employees of a clamping company - some of whom were licensed by new regulatory body the SIA - the RAC Foundation has written to the Home Secretary demanding that he tightens up the rules urgently.

The Foundation is also asking motorists whether it is now time to ban clamping on private land completely as it has been in Scotland since 1992.


Scenes in the footage shot by an undercover Sky News reporter who had infiltrated the clamping company and worked for four weeks filming with a secret camera showed:

* A clamper telling a motorist to move his car and park in a specific area, waiting until he went into the bank and then clamping him.
* The company using an unlicensed clamper with a serious criminal record (including cutting off someone's fingers with a machete) to carry out clamping activity (contrary to the licence agreement).
* Clampers accepting bribes from the public and not giving receipts (contrary to the licence agreement).

Other abuses which featured in the ten hours of footage that was shot, but which were not broadcast, included clamping cars when there were no warning signs and then putting up signs after the event.

hollydays

Dont think any of the three latest examples are extortion.

rictic

Really???
so at the end they haven't demanded money or something else???
They have stuck strictly to the terms of the licence have they?
They haven't employed thugs? I mean whats a few fingers here or there between friends.
As I said they haven't changed one iota of their previous behaviour.
Demanding money in that way is called extortion in Scotland unless something has happened with the English language as you traverse the border then it is the same south of the border.