Clamping "madness" costs Wharfer over £700
Clampers operating at the City Pride pub extracted over £700 from one family even though they were entitled to park there.
Knightwatch, which was responsible for parking enforcement at the Marsh Wall pub until their contract was terminated on September 11, appears to have made the most of its last few days by clamping vehicles legally parked there.
Victim Tim Chellingsworth (pictured), who works in Canary Wharf, slammed Knightwatch's actions, saying it was "absolute madness."
He used the City Pride car park on September 5 when he and his family attended a wedding reception at the Britannia Hotel. Despite paying a fee to use the car park, Mr Chellingsworth returned to find his car had been clamped, while his brother-in-law's had been towed away by Knightwatch.
The 35-year-old said: "We saw the clamping signs in the City Pride car park and followed the instructions, getting authority to park .
"We paid a £5 parking fee per car and wrote our car registration details on the Knightwatch logsheet in the pub. The barman even went outside and told the patrol team we had authority to park there for the night. What more could we do?
"But when we got back shortly before midnight our cars had been clamped, at 9.45pm and 9.52pm, while the pub was open and the same barman still on duty.
"My car was clamped and my brother-in-law's car was clamped and then towed away.
"We had no choice but to pay to get our cars back, even though they knew we could park there and even admitted they had been told by the barman.
"In our party there were three young children and a seven-month pregnant mother.
"It cost £723 to get the cars back. We're appealing to Knightwatch to get our money back, although we have heard nothing from them since. It's absolute madness."
City Pride manager Christine Bilde was away when the incident occurred but confirmed Knightwatch's contract ended on September 11 after a spate of problems, including the clamping of pub customer John Kentish-Barnes (pictured right).
She said: "We've had no contact with Knightwatch since then despite repeated attempts to get in touch with them because they owe us money.
The Wharf understands Knightwatch retained the log book used at the City Pride but when we tried to speak to their director Abdal Shah we were unable to get a comment.
The Government announced at the weekend it would crack down on clampers operating on private land to end what it described as "legalised mugging".
Legislation is promised, including limiting the size of penalties, curbing clamping incentives and the introduction of a compulsory licence scheme for all clampers.
Clamping firms are estimated to earn almost £1billion a year in the UK.
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