Daylight robbery!

A MAN from Waltham Forest registered as disabled

Kategori	: English
Yorum Sayısı	: 0
Okunma	: 717
Tarih	: 05 ?ubat 2009 00:25

By Sanem Sahin and Suzan Nuri

A MAN from Waltham Forest registered as disabled was targeted by callous wheel clampers after he had park his car to get a car wash token at a petrol station in Forest Road.

Muhittin Aydin was forced to pay £465 to get his car released after he had parked at the BP station and went to get a token for the car wash. On returning to the vehicle, he found two employees of Citywatch Parking clamping his car.

Despite trying to reason with them, they were unwilling to unclamp his car until the payment was made and even got a tow truck ready to take Mr Aydin’s car away.

Mr Aydin said he had just popped into the shop for a minute but returned to find the two burly wheel clampers attaching a clamp.

Mr Aydin told London Turkish Gazette that the attitude of the clampers left a lot to be desired and they refused to give adequate contact details for Mr Aydin to lodge a complaint.

“Two recovery trucks came and when I asked one of the men ‘where is your manager’, he laughed and pointed at the lorry driver and said ‘there he is’. He was being extremely unhelpful and said ‘We have come to tow your car away’. I had no alternative then but to try and get the money to stop them taking away my car.”

Mr Aydin said his wife pleaded with the men to release the car but they refused. Mr Aydin then questioned whether they were a legal company to which they responded by shouting at the lorry driver to take the car.

“I had no option but to hand over the money,” Mr Aydin said, “and when I asked for a complaint form or right to appeal, they just told me that my receipt should be enough for me.”

Mr Aydin said there were no clearly visible signs saying it was a wheel clamping area and at any rate, he was a customer of the petrol station.

An employee at the petrol station, who did not wish to be named said that the owners of the station had entered into a contract with Citywatch after they approached them offering parking control services. The employee said they were pleased at first because they were getting people parking on their forecourt unnecessarily but they were now clamping legitimate customers too and this has soured relations with their clientele.

The employee added that Citywatch had yet to respond to a letter sent to cancel the contract by the station owners.

Mr Aydin said what Citywatch did amounted to daylight robbery and that he would be taking the matter further until he was refunded the wheel-clamping fee. He has since got in touch with the police, Waltham Forest Council, Trading Standards and Citizen’s Advice.

Mr Aydin is not the only person to have fallen foul of the clampers. This week a man staged an eight hour sit-in against the company

Nicholas Taylor (56) had his car clamped at 3pm on Tuesday while he bought a sandwich from the shop.

The Walthamstow man was eventually forced to pay the fee and left at 11pm.

Mr Taylor said: “My solicitor said I should probably leave because I could incur extra charges running into the thousands.

"But Citywatch climbed down from the extra £160 an hour they had threatened to charge me for sitting there.

"But this is not the end,” said Mr Taylor as he plans to appeal against the fine.

Many other residents have been clamped by Citywatch while using petrol station car parks in the borough in recent weeks.

BP petrol station manager, Kanbasamy Normalan, apologised to customers and urged them not to park in the forecourt unless they are buying petrol until the  clamping contract ceases on 15 February.

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