It pays to read the signs before leaving your car in a carpark or other private land in England: security guards can impose enormous instant fines, and enforce them by immobilizing your car with a wheel clamp.
In response, a British motoring body is inviting nominations for England's most offensive carpark security guard, most of whom work for small companies that specialize in wheel-clamping work.
A clamp, sometimes dubbed a "boot," is a metal device that locks over one wheel of the car, preventing it from rolling freely.
The RAC Foundation said that in one recent case, a nurse's car was clamped twice when she stopped to help an elderly fall victim at a crossing.
The nurse had parked in a pub car park in order to help the elderly lady. On her return found that her car had been clamped.
When she explained what had happened, the clamper and the owner of the pub refused to listen, clamped a second wheel and demanded ?120. The foundation is now running a search for the "worst cowboy clamper" annually.
Last year, this dubious honor went to a clamper who allegedly immobilized a car while the driver was asleep inside, threatened some clamped motorists with large dogs and forced a pregnant woman to walk with her young child to a cash point 3km away.
The RAC Foundation said its files on some of the nastiest guards include clampers who threatened to hold a mother's 3-year-old daughter ransom until she collected the ?60 fee from a bank.
A postman was clamped while delivering a parcel to his customer's front door and a hearse was clamped with a dead body in the back.
Wheel clamping on private land is not allowed in neighboring Scotland, but is permitted in England and Wales, where an authority grants licenses to the clampers. From next February, clamping without a Security Industry Authority license will become an offence.
Edmund King, executive director of the RAC Foundation, said: "There is huge concern amongst many motorists who are often coerced into paying large amounts of money, when they have parked quite innocently. They feel they have no rights and no means of redress."
The foundation promotes motoring interests and works alongside the RAC, a firm that provides breakdown repairs and insurance.
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