Wheel Clamping Defence and Removal
 

It’s every motorist’s worst nightmare – you park your car for a few minutes, only to return to find it clamped or, even worse, towed away. As well as the delay and inconvenience, you will undoubtedly be asked to pay a substantial fee as well.

Clamping and removal have been around for many years, though originally they were limited to busy town and city centres. The police were once the only people with the power to remove illegally parked vehicles, but they used this power only to deal with vehicles that were dangerously parked or causing an obstruction. Clamping was sometimes used as a deterrent in places where illegal parking was seen as a particular problem.

All that changed with the arrival of decriminalised parking enforcement, however. This system, first introduced in London in 1994, allowed local councils to take over the enforcement of parking regulations from the police. It’s no coincidence that, from then on, both clamping and removal have become far more common. For many councils, clamping hapless motorists with nowhere else to park provides a valuable boost to their finances. And councils with (very expensive) removal trucks and equipment have every incentive to use them on anyone parked ‘illegally’ rather than letting them stand idle.

Private clampers operating on private land (e.g. pub or shop car parks) are an even more serious hazard for the motorist. They are unregulated, can charge any fee they like for releasing your vehicle, and will often only accept cash as payment. Although there have been calls for action to regulate clamping on private land since 1993, as yet no action has been taken, and clamping is still seen by many less-than-savoury operators as a licence to print money.

So what can you do to avoid being held over a barrel in this way? Obviously, the best solution is to avoid being clamped in the first place. However, if you are unfortunate enough to suffer this fate, there is one very good defence you can use. The law says that, to be clamped legally, a driver must give his consent to this happening, otherwise the clamping is illegal. If there are no warning signs to indicate this, therefore, or the signs are not sufficiently prominent, the clamping may not be enforceable.

A case in the Court of Appeal in April 2000 against the London Borough of Waltham Forest showed how this principle can work in a motorist’s favour. The plaintiff, Marina Vine, won her case because the judges accepted her argument that she had not seen signs indicating that unauthorised vehicles would be clamped. This case demonstrated that clampers must ensure that warning signs are sufficiently prominent to prove beyond doubt that motorists parking illegally have consented to the risk of clamping. If motorists say that they did not see the signs, the clampers cannot simply say ‘tough’ and demand payment.

Exactly this same principle was applied by a motorist called Peter Cartner in October 2002 to defend himself against an accusation of criminal damage. Cartner used a crowbar to remove two wheel clamps from his car which he had left in the car park of the Black Bull pub in Haworth, Yorkshire. There were signs stating that unauthorised vehicles would be clamped, but Cartner argued he did not believe they would apply to him, as he knew the landlord. The magistrates accepted his argument that he did not think he was at risk, and therefore did not give his consent to being clamped. In fact, the landlord Cartner knew had moved on, but Cartner said it was only after being clamped that he found out about this.

Obviously magistrates would require a good reason for accepting that you had not consented to the risk of clamping – but if you have one, there is a very good possibility you can remove the clamps yourself and legally avoid paying the removal fee.