Notorious car clamper facing Asbo
Due in court for immobilisation
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An employee of a car-clamping outfit which has "brought misery to visitors to a Yorkshire tourist village" looks likely to be immobilised himself - by an Asbo.
According to the Yorkshire Post, George Albert McDicken, 38, of Wilsden, near Bradford, is due in Leeds magistrates court today accused of "intimidating and aggressive behaviour" following "hundreds of complaints to police and Bradford Council" regarding his demeanour in two car parks in Haworth.
McDicken works for Carstoppers, once honoured with a Dick Turpin award "for being the modern day equivalent of a highway robber". Its legendary exploits include, the BBC notes, clamping a motor while the driver was asleep inside; requiring a heavily-pregnant woman "to walk two miles to the nearest cash machine to get money to pay the firm"; and "showing no mercy" to a wheelchair-bound visitor to Haworth who with her husband "arrived late at their car after struggling to walk up the steep hill" to the village centre.
A Bradford Council spokesman said: "The Asbo application has been brought following numerous complaints to the police and ourselves over a long period of time. The case is not actually against clamping, which is legal, it is the behaviour that goes with it." ®
COMMENTS
Liquid Nitrogen....
....Brings back memories
But on a more serious note, "Alan" is right about the Government today; totally betrayed the sound principles that created the Labour Party in the first place.
Overclock the clamps!
A simple solution to car clamping (and I've seen this done) is to get some liquid nitrogen (the same stuff overclockers use to cool their insanely-pumped CPUs) and thoroughly douse the clamp with it. Then give it a good solid smack with a brick hammer and the damn thing will shatter like glass!
I saw a bloke do exactly this at a LAN party I went to a couple of years ago; he'd parked his car in an EMPTY shopping centre car park across the road from the party, it was duly clamped, and the LiN2 he'd been using to show off his uber PC at the party worked a treat on the clamp... I wish I could have seen the clamper's face when he found his tungsten-reinforced extortion-machine smashed like a bone china cup!
Just make sure you don't get the stuff on your car... or yourself...
Penalty Charges
The first comment is very interesting; does this have any similarity to the situation with reclaiming penalty charges from the banks? The clamp removal fee must surely be much higher than the costs involved. Perhaps someone who has been clamped and fined should take this to court, then the private clampers would have to reveal their costs to the court....
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