a friend of mine who happens to look just like me, and drive the same car......was clamped by a private firm for parking on private property last night. went back in the morning to pay the £100 release charge and found a note on window from clamper saying 'sorry but due to unforseen circumstances i wont be around today to release your car, will be around from 10.30 (didnt say am or pm) tommorow (7th).

so the fact that my friend has to be at work tommorow morning at 7.30am and couldnt get in contact with the clamper, was rather unhappy. so decided to cut the clamp triangle off with a hacksaw (the triangle isnt toughned steel unlike the chain).
hes now going to weld it back together and make it look like it was never damaged..go to the clamping office and drop the clamp off as it was when it was left.

so my question is....
seeing as they charge £100 to release the clamp, but never actually had to release it. and will be getting there clamp back undamaged. will my friend legally get away without paying the fine?

also the fact this happened on private property and nothing will seem tampered with, technicaly there are no laws broken in the end? my friend is going to say he popped his drive shaft out in order to get the clamp off lol.

hope this makes sense and i can recieve some advice for my friend, thanks!

 

I'd throw the clamp and do one.

 

as far as im aware, you can return the clamp undamaged legally?

 

No offence but when the clamping company seem confused as to how you have just handed them back their clamp without having it officially unlocked, they are going to look for signs of damage, and most likely see where and what your friend did to it. Clamping companies do not take lightly to having their clamps "removed", if it involves any other means than a big wad of cash in their dirty hands.

If you have really welded the thing back up as good as you say you have, and there is no visual differences (what so ever?) they might just be incredibly baffled and let it slip. But if they come to a conclusion that is hasbeen tampered with your friend will be lucky if he gets away with just paying the initial £100 fine. If not... the price for a new clamp 2

 

We let the tyre down on a van and drove out of the clamp while somebody held on to it, they never came looking for the clamp so i wouldn`t be too bothered. In fact I think we still have it somewhere....

 

weld the clamp back up on their van

 

That would be my plan

 

So would I. If anyone said anything I'd tell them to show me CCTV footage and if they couldn't I'd tell them to fuck off.

 

if you can remove the clamp without damage they by law can do nothing if they try to reclamp you as you are removing it the police are on your side & will make the clampers go away as they only get one chance

 

How could they prove in no uncertain terms that it hadn't been tampered with in the past before it came near you friends car too??

 

and some super glue in the lock roflol

 

I would tell your friend to return the clamp. However, if they spot it has been damaged they could report it as criminal damage. I would make sure your friend fully documents everything in relation to the clamp in case they are unscrupulous and cause some damage to it claiming he has done it. I would photograph it from all angles and also get the person who receives it to sign for it and get their details when you hand it over.

 

I'd tell your friend to weigh it in

 

Hand it in to lost property at the police station, if you can remove it without doing any damage to its the is fook all they can do...

 

i think throwing it away and claiming hes never even seen the clamp would be the easiest choice, but i spoke to someone who lived in the flats over looking the car park and they said theyve seen the clampers taking before and after pics of the clamps once there on cars. so unless he claims some good samaritan must have removed it he would probably get done for it.

also they will have taken pics of his number plates so will eventually track him down? unless they cant be bothered.

he was going to weld the clamp back together, grind the welds down then skim them with filler and paint over it. that ways theres no signs of previous damage. so therefore hes broken no laws and can walk away without paying. a lot of effort but better than paying the fine and a slight bit of satisfaction at the end i suppose. and better than getting done for criminal damage.

and as said above even if they notice the welds they cant prove it wasnt like that before it was on my car.

 

scrap prices round here are pretty good at the moment too lol

 

Excellent!

 

Repair it ans keep it. If they track you down, just give them it back. Without handing any money over....

 

If I had the ability to remove it myself, I would just chuck it in the bin somewhere - fuck em. If they can't prove you removed it, how are they going to take it any further and frankly why would the law care?

RW

 

BEFORE IT WAS ON MY CAR ???

 

oops, our cars are so similar i end up talking about it like its mine, thats the only reason

 

Grind it in half, weigh it in and be done with it, not being funny but how can they clamp your car then write a note saying they aint gonna be around to take it off untill tomorrow..

 

well make sure they can't tell it's been cut or welded back up???? woud love too see their faces when you do hand it back to them LMFAO....

even if it was damaged...how can they prove it was you that did the damage???
could have been someone else that's pissed at clamps, and decided to cut it up LOLOLOL

 

Tell them it must have been nicked by some pikeys for scrap and serves them right for leaving it out all night in this day and age.

 

If they contact you just say 'i never saw a clamp on my car' make out there was never one on there so obviously someone else must have taken it off

 

As simple as that

 

Worth a try aint it??

 

By Law if you put the clamp in the place the car was clamped in an undamadged state (take photographic date stamped evidence of you doing this) then there is nothing they can do. That is official law on clampits oh i mean clampers. HTH

 

Clampers aren't regulated by government so fuck all they can do I think. Read an article on this the other day that's why they can charge obscene amounts to clamp, remove, tow, store etc etc with no one to tell them nothing.

I know someone who got clamped who happens to be a mechanic, basically did some shit like undo suspension or something and removed the clamp whole without damaging it and has got it shoved in the back of the workshop and been there for years. Didn't pay no fine no nothing and fuck all happened.

 

i'd have cut it off, and left it in pieces where the car was, fuck welding it back together or kindly returning it back to them, fucking leave it where it is - fuckin clampers i hate the cunts

 

tell your freind that the clamp needs to find its way into the bin and off he goes

 

Weld it to the nearest lamp post and say the wind blew it off!

It has been a blustery weekend hasn't it?

 

Bin it and forget it,claim it was'nt on your car when u returned!!!and u know nothing

would be cheaper to get a locksmith out to pick the lock than pay the £100

Paul

 

Fpmsl

 

this happened to a "friend" of mine - TWICE !

Spoke wit feds, they said as long as no criminal damage or theft occurs then no laws are broken !

So, as the chain was linked over the lower arm, we let the tyre down, removed the wheel, dropped the lower arm & removed the clamp without any damage whatsoever ! While we were removing it, we didn't realise there was another car (Focus) clamped & the clampin company came to remove theirs while we was removing ours !

The guy never said a word to us, heard him on loud speaker sittin in his mota talkin to his who was sayin "there's some gezza, takin your f**kin clamp off his mota & you arn't gonna say a word or do anything about it ?" we couldn't stop laughin so the guy drove off !

We whipped it off, called the number on the clamp, the gezza wouldn't tell us where the office was so we couldn't drop it back, he was tryin to be smart, at which point I jus said he could collect it from the local plod shop & told him to have a nice evening !

Dropped it at the fed station & never heard another word.

The 2nd time, 2 cars got clamped down our road, 1 was my "friend" and another leary fella's who was visiting a friend close. He jumped straight on the phone, f'in & blindin at em, tellin em how he was gonna cut the things off & chuck em through the company's windows & cut em up etc if they didn't come remove it !

So at this point I got my thinkin cap on, went & chatted to the fella & offered to cut the clamp off for him, found out the car was in his name & he'd given all the details to clampin firm when he first started talkin to em.

So off we went & came back 10 mins later wit a generator & 9" grinder, 30 sec's later both clamps were off both cars & binned !

He called em back & laughed at em down the phone then hung up. Happy days. I told him what we was gonna do & he said he'd do the same but vise versa if they got in touch !

Few weeks later my pal recieved letters from the clampin firm demanding £250 & threatening criminal damage etc, at which point we wrote back & explained how we saw the clamp on 2 cars, then before we got a chance to raise the funds for the release fee & call the company etc, we heard a fella outside raving on the phone screamin bout the clamp etc, then a while later heard a bit of noise outside which we didn't take no notice of, then go down stairs the following morning & the clamp was gone !

That was about 6 months ago now & hopefully we haven't heard anything since !

Also shortly after my friend got a letter posted through the door by the feds which went to everyone saying how their investigatin the inncodent & will find & charge the criminals etc.

Hope this helps

jb

 

i caught the clamper trying tp clamp my mota i griped the skinny coont then the bloke i was with had a fit at him he shat his self ran off leaving his clamp and keys lol. at wich point i droped his keys down the drain and fooked off , i went back later his van was still there locked up as he had no other keys and i know it was taken away on a recovery truck lol. two weeks later the clamping signs had gone and they don't clamp there anymore

 

cheers for all the replies guys. as much as id love to get rid of it now. think im just gonna leave it in my garage and see what happens. just abit worried i was seen by people in the office opposite cutting it off (had my car door open and tunes on so was clearly the owner of the car lol) they were an official company, (they had signs up where i parked). if i dont hear anything for ages then il just weigh it in and be done with it. but if i hear from them then il weld it back together and drop it off at the cop shop and let the cunts know its there and undamaged

 

All clamping firms can apply for your name & address from the dvla for £4.So they will find out where you live.If it's your mom,dads house ,i wouldn't want to be bringing shit to their door.
There was a case in the paper last week where the clamper clamped a car and was asking £120 fro the release.When the owner came back and started swearing at the clamper the clamper said "that's another £100 for abusive behavoir"and this shit is legal.
The only thing i do know is IF YOU REMOVE THE CLAMP WITHOUT DAMAGING IT,THEN IT'S LEGAL.If you can 100% make the clamp look UN-TAMPERED then go for it.

 

Could always phone the clamper and tell him he can have his clamp back if he pays your release fee of £100

 

LMFAO.... yup play them at thier own game but make sure it's in good nick first LOLOLOL