More Serious Action Over Wheel Clampers

Early this week a senior police officer defended Doncaster's record on action taken over clampers.

A home office minister highlighted some differences in the number of prosecutions brought against clampers by police forces in Merseyside and South Yorkshire. In 2007 Merseyside police took action against 200 wheel clampers and found 157 guilty, compared to South Yorkshire which took action against no wheel clampers at all. In 2008 Merseyside police took action against 54 clampers and found 47 guilty, compared with South Yorkshire's 2 prosecutions.

Ms Featherstone, the home office minister, suggested that there may be an issue that needs to be dealt with. She also said, "It's not necessarily for the Home Secretary to deal with it. It is beholden perhaps on all Members of Parliament in that area to speak to the police chief to point out that differential figure, which is startling."

The Chief Inspector of Doncaster's police force Nick Whitehouse said that they supported the tightening up of malpractice and giving regulators more power to fight rogue clampers. He also said the Doncaster police force would be happy to work with Doncaster Central MP Rosie Winterton, who called the debate, to provide a policing perspective.

Mr Whitehouse said, "No-one particularly likes this activity especially if its done in a cavalier or intimidating way and some of the examples quoted by the MP of how people have been treated are clearly very distressing for the individuals concerned.

"However, the issue of wheel clamping of illegally parked cars on private land is largely dealt with under the civil law. The police are not the regulatory body for wheel clamping on private land as regulation comes through the Security Industry Authority who licence the clamping firms."

He also stated he believed the figures from Merseyside indicated that there was more of a problem there than the current wheel clamping situation in Doncaster.

Posted Friday July 2^nd 2010
By The Onlines