AN UNLICENSED wheel clamping firm boss who fleeced dozens of innocent motorists has jailed for two years after his “business” was condemned as a ruthless scam.

Judge Philip Parker QC told Andrew Baker that his company, Inter Park UK, was nothing more than a simple con which had left its victims feeling robbed and bullied.

The judge criticised the rogue clamper for leaving motorists stranded and distressed.

Baker, of Pithall Road, Shard End, Birmingham, pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to conspiracy to defraud drivers in Birmingham and other parts of the West Midlands between March 2007 and March 2008.

The 29-year-old, who has previous convictions for robbery, obtaining property by deception, harassment and theft, showed no emotion as he was sentenced.

A previous hearing was told that Baker left 36 victims – including some who had paid and displayed – in a state of distress after conning them out of more than £12,000.

Passing sentence, Judge Parker told the convicted burglar that he accepted the clamping business had operated legitimately when it was set up in 2005.

But the judge added that operation then became a “con” in which motorists parked legitimately saw their vehicles clamped and towed away before being held to ransom for up to £445.

The judge told Baker: “You were not in fact licensed for this activity, as it is accepted you should have been.

“Your website was a travesty of the truth, suggesting as it did that you worked closely with Trading Standards and the police.

“It’s plain by this fraud that in effect you illegally impounded people’s cars, not just causing them distress and inconvenience, but naturally feelings of real loss and panic.

“People felt held to ransom – the victims felt they had been bullied, felt that they had been robbed in ordinary terms, or as the prosecution opened it, fleeced.”

The business was operating as a simple scam with a false cloak of legitimacy, the judge said, ruling the offences to a confidence fraud.

“This to my mind is professional offending – there is a failure to respond to warnings… there is an abuse of power… there are multiple victims and in the end one can see this case as a ruthless exploitation of vulnerable persons,” he added.

Two other men who worked for Inter Park UK were also before the court and were each fined £500 after admitting one count of fraud.

The prosecution followed an investigation by Birmingham City Council’s Trading Standards department, which had received numerous complaints from furious motorists who felt they had been unfairly clamped or towed away by Inter Park UK.

Inter Park UK operated at numerous sites in Birmingham and Wolverhampton, where warning signs could not be seen easily, as well as clamping cars at three locations were it had no contractual right to do so.

Among those who fell victim to the firm were Christmas shoppers at a site in New Canal Street, Birmingham, who were told they had parked “inches over the line” even though the lines were not clearly painted.

On one occasion in February 2008, Inter Park UK removed several cars on what turned out to be land owned by Walsall Council, which had no agreement with the firm.

Birmingham City Council believes that Inter Park UK may have been netting up to £3,000 per day and that many motorists were so intimidated that they did not contact the authorities.

In a statement, Councillor Neil Eustace, Birmingham’s Chair of Public Protection, called for greater powers to allow the authority to regulate the car-clamping sector.

Mr Eustace said: “Birmingham City Council’s Public Protection Committee has made several representations to the government calling for further regulations to curb the excessive practices still engaged in by a number of clamping companies, and the misery that they ultimately cause to their victims.”

Suzi says: It’s people like this that have brought the whole profession of vehicle immobilisation into disrepute.  There are many vehicle immobiliser organiations who operate ligitimate and professional companies with only licenced operatives.  With the Governments proposals to licence vehicle immobiliser companies soon, the profession will become even more legitimate, although we all know that everyone will still love to hate a clamper.  beSmart Training offer top-class vehicle immobiliser training on a regular basis.  We would like to think that all the people we have trained adhere to their training and offer a fair and legitimate service.

The Yorkshire Evening post yesterday reported that a Wakefield doorman has been jailed for six months after punching a Leeds nightclubber in the face.

Paul Bartley, 25, of Plumpton Street, Wakefield, was found guilty of malicious wounding and grievous bodily harm.

The victim, a 30-year-old man, had been in the Mission nightclub toilets last August when he was approached by Bartley and asked to leave the premises.

After a row, Bartley punched the man causing serious facial injuries.

PC Amy Spencer, from British Transport Police, said: “This was a completely unprovoked, vicious assault on a member of the public who had simply gone on a night out to enjoy himself with friends.

“As a door supervisor, Bartley’s role was to ensure the safety of members of the public attending the club. He abused his position and authority and obviously thought he was above the law.”

Bartley has also had his Security Industry Authority (SIA) door supervisors’ license revoked.

Suzi says…

This is exactly the kind of door supervisor we do NOT need in the industry.  Door supervisors are employed to ensure staff and customers are safe and should be professional at all times.  Contrary to popular belief, with cetain obvious exceptions, door supervisors are no longer the thugs and bullies of yesteryear.   They are well trained professionals who are licensed by the Government to undertake a very difficult, and at time dangerous, job.   It is about time the law started punishing the old-school “bouncers” who do still think it’s acceptable to slap people around.  Perhaps then the message will get through that this kind of behaviour is unacceptable.  beSmart Training regularly runs courses for people who want to become door supervisors.  We have over fifty years experience in door supervision between us and we pride ourselves on providing good, professional and thorough training that will benefit any door supervisor in their chosen career.

Ray Massey from the Mail Online reports today: Cowboy clamping companies that fleece motorists through ‘legalised mugging’ have failed to clean up their act and will now be rooted out, parking bosses will be told today by ministers and motoring champions.

Transport Minister Sadiq Khan will warn vehicle immobilisation firms to their face that the days of ‘disreputable operators’ ripping off motorists are over and that the Government intends to ‘root out the rogues, combat the cowboys, banish the bullies and put a stop to their wholly unacceptable activities for good’.

And AA president Edmund King will tell delegates to a special ’summit’ of the British Parking Association that they are in the ‘last chance saloon’ noting: ‘You have had your chance to clean up your act but have failed.

‘Self-regulation has failed.  We have reached the end of the road on reining in the antics of unscrupulous wheel clampers whose immoral excesses are reported to us almost daily.’

The broadside comes in the wake of  a notable victory for the Daily Mail after ministers  pledged to back a four-point  initiative by this newspaper to crack down on the unregulated cowboys  whose antics in England and Wales have been condemned as ‘legalised mugging.’

In Scotland clamping on private land is outlawed as ‘extortion and theft’.

The AA Mr King will tell delegates that the problem is not just a few isolated one-man band clampers, but that ’several of the established’ companies who are themselves members of the 650-strong British Parking Association are also failing to abide by their own code of practice.

He says a 64 per cent rise in clamping over the last 12 month is down in part to the fact that  many are trying to ‘cash in’ now before tougher regulation drives them out of business: ‘The dramatic increase in clamping is due to the fact that the cowboys know they are drinking in the last chance saloon and are trying to cash in before regulation drives them out of town.’

Attacking the ‘bully boy’  tactics of unregulated clampers imposing unfair and ‘draconian’ punishments,  Mr King says parking firms and clampers have wasted a chance to clean up their act – because many have refused to do so.

Mr King will tell the London conference of the  British Parking Association  which represents 650 members: ‘You have had your chance to clean up your act but have failed. It is not just the one-man band clampers that are out of order but several of the established companies. Self-regulation has failed. ‘

The AA has told the Home Office that their proposed new regulations on clamping  will fail without an independent regulator and independent appeals process.

The AA highlights has compiled from complaints a catalogue of ‘cowboy’ clamper tactics including:

* Parking decoy cars to ‘encourage’ people to park
* Hiding signs by parking the clamp van in front of them
* Making up and adding extra charges such as ‘tow truck called’ fee, swear box fee, ‘police called nuisance fee’
* Clamping drivers still in the vehicle who have pulled over to check a map or make a phone call
* Deliberately targeting ‘vulnerable’ motorists

Motorists deserved a fair and proportionate response to minor breaches of rules ‘rather than extortion, threats and profiteering,’ he says.

Penalties and appeals for off-street parking should be similar to those for on-street infringements and demanded an independent appeal against a clamp, removal or ticket.

Mr King noted: ‘We have reached the end of the road on reining in the antics of unscrupulous wheel clampers whose immoral excesses are reported to us almost daily.  Licensing has not worked as, in many cases, it has simply legalised the cowboys.’

He cites charging pensioners £370 to recover their car after a minor parking error or leaving an 18-year-old female alone overnight in a city because her car was taken and not given back until the next day.

Mr King will tell  parking delegate that ‘toothless’  licensing of the industry in 2005 became a ‘licence to print money’ for many.

‘Some ever resourceful rogue clampers often tacked on spurious charges, even having the audacity to impose extra ones for calling the police or swearing.’

Clampers routinely charge a clamping release fee and removal charge taking the cost to  more than £500  – even if a tow away never takes place.

If the Government’s planned crackdown does not work then clamping on private land should be outlawed as it was in Scotland in 1992.

Mr King highlighted a report by insurer LV which said the number of motorists who have been wheelclamped has risen by 64 per cent in the last 12 months with private clamping firms taking £58million.

In response to  the scale of the scandal unveiled by a Daily Mail investigation last month, Home Office Alan Campbell, responsible for drawing up new legislation to crackdown on abuses, agreed to act on the Mail’s four-point action plan to:

* limit the size of penalties dished out by firms
* regulate towing practices
* put in place an effective and fair appeals process

He is currently thrashing out with civil servants the means of making such an appeal system fully independent.

Ministers are also investigating ways to curb the incentives given to clamping firms by land owners, which has seen clampers offering to work for free for  landowners- paying them a £50-per-car bounty for each one clamped.

But Transport Minister Sadiq Khan has already said that the Government’s aim would be to make the appeals system ‘independent’.

Home Office Minister Alan Campbell said: “We are currently looking to introduce a compulsory licensing scheme for all wheelclamping businesses.

‘We need to limit the size of penalties dished out by firms, regulate towing practices and put in place an effective and fair appeals process. Alongside this, we will also look at the issue of incentives given to clamping firms by land-owners.’

The Home Office is to publish of draft legislation in the Policing, Crime and Private Security Bill in the Queen’s Speech on November 18.

Even the British Parking Association said it recognised weaknesses in the current regime.

A spokesman said: ‘The British Parking Association, which has an Code of Practice for its members, has been calling for and would welcome legislation that improves standards and fairness within the parking industry, and in particular that calls time on the cowboys.’

Chief executive Patrick Troy added: ‘We are confident that the majority of people around the table have the same aim as us – to ensure parking is regulated in a fair and transparent way.

‘This is the reason why the British Parking Association called the summit – with all attending looking forward and working together to generate ideas and find solutions to make parking fairer for all.’

Training and licensing for individuals who actually do the clamping has been a legal requirement for several years.  beSmart Training regularly runs courses for individuals who wish to get a Security Industry Authority License for vehicle immobilisation.  The licence allows individuals to clamp, immobilise, block or tow vehicles who contravene parking regulations on private land.   Please go to our website for more information.

A pub where free drinks were handed out to customers has been closed down.

The pub in Devon where bout 20 “intoxicated” people were present was shut on Friday night by the police, due to concerns about disorder and public safety.

A notice was served last month on the premises banning the sale of alcohol until certain conditions were met.

Since then police officers and council enforcement staff have been reviewing allegations of breaches of the order.

It is the first time police in mid Devon have used their powers under Section 161 of the Licensing Act 2003.

The pub closure order has been extended until the police can take the matter to magistrates.

A police spokesman said it was a “highly unusual action” and demonstrated a willingness to ensure licensed premises were well-managed and safe places for the public.

Here at beSmart we offer a range of alcohol licensing courses including Responsible Alcohol Retailing, Designated Premises Supervisor and many more related courses.

For further information please visit the beSmart Training website.

The Security Industry Authority and City of London Police have found two door staff working illegally following checks at City bars and clubs  last Saturday night.

One doorman was working with a revoked licence and the other with a forged licence –both licences were confiscated and prosecutions may follow.

By law, door supervisors must hold a front line SIA licence and display this whilst working.

The checks were part of an ongoing operation targeting security provision at venues in the area. Nine events in City venues were inspected with 51 security operatives checked – 49 were working legally with valid SIA licences.

Christy Hopkins, an SIA head of investigation, said: “It was very encouraging to find the majority of door staff complying with licensing regulations. The City is unique and many promoters have spotted this and are now holding events at the weekend, so it is important that door staff working in positions of trust do so with valid SIA licences.

“However, the police and the SIA take breaches of the Act very seriously. Door staff working without an SIA licence, and those deploying them, are committing an offence and risk prosecution. Promoters risk having their events shut down.”

Inspector Ashlie May headed the operation: “Door staff have a crucial role to play in making sure the public enjoy a safe night out at the City’s pubs and clubs – and it is the force’s responsibility to make sure that the high standards among door staff are maintained.

“Checking SIA licences is a key part of that. Not only is the licence a legal requirement, by displaying it door staff are demonstrating that they have the training needed to do their job effectively. Those staff who do not have the licences are breaking the law and will be dealt with accordingly.”

Unfortunately I’m not sure that either of these two will ever be able to get an SIA licence to operate again, but if you are interested in getting an SIA Door Supervisor licence and require training that is relevant, excellent and delivered by a doorman with over 30 years experience in the industry then contact beSmart by clicking the link.  We are currently offering the door supervisor course at the excellent discounted rate of £135.00 inclusive.  Check out our website or give Sue a call on 020 7237 6007.  Speak to you soon.