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Meet the Leeds driver down on his luck
Luckless driver Mohammed Kassim endured a double dose of bad fortune – his car was clamped just minutes after he had a road crash.
Part-time student and businessman Mr Kassim, from Harehills, says he was involved in a four-vehicle shunt near Regent Street.
In an attempt to get traffic moving again, his brother and, he says, a police officer, pushed his car into a nearby vehicle bay, and he called for a recovery truck.
But within minutes, the BMW 1 series had been clamped and towed away.
Mr Kassim, 23, discovered it missing not long after the crash and paid 385 to get his car back – even though he says, the car was in a nearby storage compound for less than an hour.
Mr Kassim said: "There were roadworks on part of the road so the accident blocked it. The car wouldn't start so they had to push it off
the road. As far as I knew it was just a layby.
"I went to a petrol station to make some calls and when I came back it was gone. There was a notice on the wall and so I rang the number.
"They told me the car had been towed away and it would be 385 to get it back. I had no choice, but to me it just seems like a licence to
print money."
Mr Kassim says he is now considering legal action over the clamping, which happened on April 10.
JD Parking Consultants, based in Pudsey, said Mr Kassim's car had been left in a privately-owned parking bay with no note or other information.
Operations manager Glenn Evans said his company had received a call about a car being parked illegally by the owners of the spot, who have offices nearby.
He added: "The vehicle had been parked in a designated private bay. We were notified by the owners and it took us 45 minutes to attend. The recovery of the vehicle then took between 10 and 15 minutes. There was no one with the vehicle during this time."
He said company workers had taken photographs of the vehicle and they appeared to show very little damage to the car. Mr Kassim drove the car away from the compound after he paid the release fee, said Mr Evans.
"If a car has been involved in an accident and the police have attended, they usually leave a notification on the vehicle.
"Also, when we tow a car away, we have to report the matter to the police. We did that in this instance but nothing was flagged up to us that the police were aware of this vehicle."
* From November, wheel-clamping firms are to be banned from operating on private land.
Under new legislation, there will be penalties for anyone clamping or towing away a vehicle parked on private property.
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Weather for Leeds
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -2 C to 0 C
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Wind direction: South
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