Quick-fire car clampers hit a moving target

THE fanaticism of car-clamping contractors is legendary but a firm in Ruislip may have broken all previous records for zeal by clamping a motorist who was turning round in a car park.

The same north-west London company, Road Runner Security, this week clamped a taxi which parked outside a branch of Boots in Slough for two minutes to make an urgent delivery of medical supplies.

In the first incident, Syed Bukhari, 38, claims he drove into the car park in Slough after getting caught in a dead-end street one morning last week. As he drew up to a wall in order to reverse, a Road Runner van pulled up behind and hemmed him in.

One of the occupants approached him and asked if he had a ticket authorising him to park there. As Mr Bukhari - his engine still running - explained that he was merely turning round, a second man began to clamp his Datsun Sunny.

'I immediately got out to protest, but they took no notice,' he said yesterday.

Mr Bukhari has instructed his solicitors to demand a refund of the pounds 59.92 which he paid to have his car released, as well as damages and legal expenses.

On Thursday, it was the turn of Viking Cars in Slough to fall foul of Road Runner. The cab firm routinely delivers drugs and oxygen supplies to Boots as well as collecting them for delivery to local residential care homes.

Unable to park in his usual spot because it was obstructed by a lorry, the driver, Andy Bloor, left his cab on the High Street and ran in. When he emerged, he found the contractors clamping it.

'He explained the urgent nature of his delivery, but the men took no notice,' Lazar Budjanovcanin, a partner at Viking, said yesterday. 'We talked to them over the radio, and the supervisor at Boots even came out to back up Mr Bloor's story. They wouldn't listen.'

A spokesman at Road Runner yesterday refused to comment on either incident, saying: 'I'm not interested in talking to you.'