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Council officials get to work on the renegade van |
Sit-in protest but clampers get their van
Driver owed £25,000 in fines
A SERIAL parking offender has had his van towed away by bailiffs after racking up more than £25,000 in unpaid fines – but only after a stand-off in a Camden Town street.
The 90-minute showdown unfolded when the driver refused to leave his white Transit van while Camden clampers, a debt recovery officer and a bailiff stood around in freezing fog waiting for police the week before Christmas.
The driver, who is in his 40s but has asked to remain anonymous, said he was protesting against Camden Council’s “greedy, us-and-them parking regulations” after his van was ticketed and clamped in Carlow Street while he was visiting a client.
After a 20-minute conversation with two police officers, he reluctantly climbed out of his van and a contract recovery truck took it away for auction.
The driver, who is on a list of Camden’s “most wanted” fine evaders, insisted the van could not be taken away because he used it for his furniture removal business.
But a council press official said that all but one of a company’s registered vehicles can be seized but, because the driver had not provided his real name or addresses, this argument “was not relevant”.
For the council, the drama ended a long-running battle to impound the van, which had accumulated more than 100 penalty charge notices since October 2002.
Although clamping was almost entirely scrapped after a new Lib Dem-Tory administration was installed at the Town Hall in May, drivers who ignore three or more parking fines that are upheld in appeals are classed as persistent evaders and can still be clamped.
The driver said: “When this new council said they were doing away with clampers they never mentioned that wouldn’t include persistent offenders.” He is determined to buy another van.
Camden’s top-10 parking offenders owe almost £200,000 in unpaid fines. A council press official said: “While we have made a number of changes in order to make our parking system fairer for residents we will continue to be tough on the minority of worst offenders.”
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