Car Impounding 'Racket' Hits Local Woman

2.03.32pm UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 12th Aug 2003

Vincent Cable, MP, has taken up with the police and the insurance authorities the case of a local woman, Nicole Warren, who had her car stolen in Twickenham and later abandoned in Hertfordshire. The local police there impounded the car and the impounding company charged her £158 plus £12 a day before they would release her car (although she had specifically asked for the car not to be impounded).

The insurers have paid most of the cost but the impounding company, seemingly in collusion with Hertfordshire police, has pocketed a sizeable sum at the expense of Ms Warren and other motorists.

Vincent Cable said: "car theft is painful enough without motorists being skinned alive by dodgy companies in the impounding business. I have had several cases of these companies imposing extortionate charges to release stolen cars. In this case, inexplicably, a police force is using one of these companies - though the Met, quite rightly, doesn't deal with them."

"Under new legislation these companies will soon be regulated: not before time!"

Contact: Nicole Warren 020 8892 6852