Quote from the article "I only ever use the car in the summer and this summer I have hardly been in London." end quote.

Hmm, well you could also say the "summer" has hardly been in the UK this year so its no wonder he didnt want to be here, nor do I ,but I have'nt got a Maserati to leave parked in London either.

Should've crushed it. To use an old cliche: "More money than sense!"

Yours bitterly,

To paraphrase a line from Friends: "Oh, i don't have time to get my Maserati from the impound, my wallet's too small for my 50s and my diamond shoes are too tight..."

Lets see if we can keep the news current!

It is foolish to crush a flower.

Should I ever have to go to that cess pool again I will drive straight to the pound and leave my car there

They should have SAID they crushed it. Then enjoyed their new garage-car! It reminds me of the Ferrari in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off".

Seriously dude, that['s 2 fucked-up comments you've left today. WTF are you on? If I were you I'd maybe have a lie down.

Have you not noticed that amanfromMars is either a badly failing Turing test AI or someone utterly, utterly mad.

If he has so much money and isn't perpared to follow the rule of law then he should lose the car. If it was some average Joe with an old mini or escort who hadn't paid their road tax they would get the full force of the legal process.

I bet if you were English and tried the same deal in Paris you would get no dispensations!

'Have you not noticed that amanfromMars is either a badly failing Turing test AI or someone utterly, utterly mad.'

or mabye just from mars?

just a thought

So normally they give 14 days for the owner to pick it up - but this 'was unusual'!

Unusual in that it was an 80 grand car - which for an ex Deutsche Bank employee is probably to him what a new Mondeo would be to most of us - but the DVLA wouldn't bat an eyelid in crushing that exactly 14 days later. B***ards!

Winds me up - the law is the law - unless you're bloody rich or a footballer, or an illegal immigrant...... or a horse - four legged, foul smelling animals get away with murder!

And no comments please about the Mondeo - I think they should all be crushed but it was just an example.

Everything the man says is relevant. He seems to prefer obscure references to stating blunt opinion, though. Good with metaphor, in my opinion.

I quite enjoy his comments!

Amen to that. Fucking place.

Frankly, its a missed opportunity, instances of supercars being parked illegally probably would have plumeted drastically, if a Youtube video had appeared of a Maseratti being crushed by TFL.

John Thompson and anonymous friend,

How so your depression whenever the Testing is of AIBetaFailSafe and Turing Tests are Virtual. Success is then Properly AssuRed. CyberIntelAIgents, Only Always in all Ways, fail at individual personal levels whenever you have a closed mind.

This is after all the Register for IT Trails, is it not?

Perhaps you don't delve into the Darkness to See ITs Pleasures. And what is Supplied during DayLight Hours is Extremist with No Overall Coordination.

A Recipe for Chaos?

but a (one way) valet service included!

If he's reading:

I will sort out the car, including fines etc - if you let me keep the car during Winter!! :)

The only time I have had to park down that corner of London we had gone to the Science museum. Parking for two hours on a nearby street cost £13 (which amounts to quite a pocketful change if you don't have £1 coins!!) and required me to run out of the museum and move the car to a different street after the first hour.

Imagine my rage when we got back to the car 2 mins after expiry of the second parking meter - having fought our way through crowds of people with our baby son in a pram back to the car - to find the bloody parking warden had been standing by the car waiting for the meter to expire and began issuing the ticket as the meter ran out. So much for the 5 mins 'grace time' I thought you were supposed to get...

[If anyone decides to pipe up with the classic "serves you right for not taking public transport" line - I challenge you to cross London and back with a pram on a busy day before you bother]

Any other option is insulting AI programmers, Martians or the insane.

The only thing that baffles me if it ISN'T a bot is that someone is willing to waste any of their life writing incoherent rubbish on the comments page of a news blog, you only have so long until you die and it's used like this =|

So now any one with a nice expensive car and or no tax, gets 3 months of cheap parking when towed.

TFL should have crushed the car like any other, and then inform the chap his cube is ready to be collected.

At the very least TFL missed out on a nice earner from the auction.

Annoyed tax payer.

jeez fellas, get a life, the martian provides some lighthearted reading and has done for ages

B

From the article, it seems to say that unclaimed cars are SOLD, not crushed. And, from the warden's statement, the collectable Maserati was a bit "unusual" to sell at a public auction - which is very likely the case, as most car auction goers are not the type to spring for £80k, most probably having to be cash. Probably would need a sale at a collectables auction, which don't happen every month...hence the delay in getting rid of it, even if TfL wanted to.

Yeah, I'm jealous of the guy too, but that doesn't automatically mean that there is favoritism or seperate set of rules involved...and crushing ANY beautiful car like a Maserati is a complete waste btw...

I couldn't care less if he's a billionaire, would any normal person not get arrested for daring to rack up so many congestion charges and ignoring them?

Is it such that the law can be ignored if you can afford to flout it, or shouldn't he be banged up for deliberate contempt for the law of the country.

If I'm too 'busy' to get around to paying my council tax because I'm opening a new company, does that get me off the hook then? I'll pay it in 90 years time...honest!

"I challenge you to cross London and back with a pram on a busy day before you bother"

How do you think I take my 2-year-old to see the dinosaurs at the NHM? It's surprisingly easy when you get the hang of things. For future reference, though, it's a lot easier with buses than tubes.

IN my state a warrant would be issued for that high of an amount.Also tow order would be issued ,so the next time some ran the plates it would get yank. They would of sold that car at auction here. That excuse of well its to high end to sale does not fly. You mean to tell me they could not a sell an 80 £ for 5-7000 £.

Who cares if an 80k car is more than usually goes at the auction? Give an auction goer a bargain. They didn't buy the car, why should they care if it gets sold well below its value?

"...some lighthearted reading..."

I think you mean 'lightheaded' ;)

I say they should have crushed the car.

Just for fun, after 14 days, and filmed it and put it on YouTube.

When we say "Don't Park there, We Mean it!"

After many run-ins with the vicious parking prevention officers of Camden I didn't think it possible that my opinion of those professional miseries-for-hire had anywhere lower to go. Apparently so, because they are also spinelessly deferential to the monied classes and presumably doff their hi-vis caps whenever one approaches.

If they couldn't sell it they should have crushed it as it had no valid tax while on the Queen's highway. Like they do to everyone else with a feeble excuse.

Maybe they could have gifted it as a handy greasy bribe to whoever sets their ticket-quotas and earned every other motorist a bit of a break with their lucky find instead of meekly returning it to its busy owner.

Mind you it confirms what I've always wondered about those fugly overpriced Maseratis - you actually literally can't even give one away.

Are they as bad as the Yorkshire asbo clamper?

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/25/car_clamping_asbo/

Round here they're quite friendly - I left my car obstructing the driveway to the local court house and returned to find a note written on a piece of paper saying they'd made a note of my registration and asking me not to park here again!

For anyone who finds a parking attendant writing a ticket for their car, it isn't a ticket until it's on the windscreen so get in and drive away, don't muck about arguing with them because they'll just stick the ticket on your car as you bluster and probably have a little self satisfied laugh as they walk away. You can always pick up your partner in a few minutes after you've driven round the block.

Funny: I could have sworn I saw this story four years ago. Remember that it's August and that Evening Standard journos are hard put to find anything to write about in the months between Parliamentary sittings. That's why it's called the silly season . . .

kind of reminds me of my favourite Homer moment (not this story but one lurking on the site anyway)

Homer: Its like you are from Venus

Marge: and you are from Mars

Homer: Sure, give me the one with all the monsters!

Keep on writing amanfromMars, I will keep reading

Maybe in the past; but, unfortunately, not now... the Parking Attendant does not need to affix the ticket to your car for it to become legal. The good news is that there are a plethora of ways that the council screws their own processes up, thus letting you off the hook.

Mr Burns: "Any messages for me Simpson?"

Homer: "Yes sir, there's been a couple of messages. 1. Your car is illegally parked. It will be towed in 15 minutes. 2. Your car has been towed. 3. Your car has been crushed into a cube. 4. You have 15 minutes to move your cube."

*ring ring*

Mr Burns: "Is that about my cube?"

I don't think its criminal just civil - they just send the bailiffs after you, I thought (with a huge charge on top for the bailiffs) after they've sold your car for peanuts.

If only life were as sweet for us all as they are for this fool. I need toi buy my council house and cant afford it and he poee's money away like its toilet water!! There is something wrong.. I work hard but my bonus is not millions like people in the City - its nil . Help me by emailing me and pledgingas much as you can to help me at least get my own house . Thanks Tony Dobbs. tony.dobbs@hotmail.com