Car-napped! Singer's car gets towed away

Leo's known for his work with critically acclaimed band The Streets and for his flirting on ITV's Celebrity Love Island, but since his car was taken he's spent most of his time trying to get it back.

He had been given permission to park in the space in the car park, and had a permit in his car from the clamping company that had been operating when he went away. He had been given no notification that the new clamping company would start patrolling the grounds and because he'd been away, he also hadn't been at home when a South East Clamping Ltd employee had knocked on doors to deliver the new permits.

Judge ordered car to be returned
The clamping company quoted him a release fee of £450 and told him he should pay up and appeal later. He refused, adamant he had done nothing wrong, and went to court to get an injunction to force South East Clamping Ltd to deliver his car back to him. The judge agreed that his car should be returned, and in the injunction said that it should be delivered back to him within 12 hours of the injunction being served.

When Leo rang South East Clamping Ltd, to try and serve the injunction over the phone, he was told that he was becoming a "menacing, threatening caller" and the employee he spoke to hung up the phone on him.

So he went to South East Clamping Ltd's offices to deliver the injunction in person. But he was blocked from serving it personally to the owner of the company by another employee, who told him he would take the injunction from him but wouldn't give him his full name or sign a receipt.

All the while, Leo's car still hadn't been returned, placing the company at risk of contempt of court. And the release fees kept rising. On the day Leo served the injunction South East Clamping Ltd claimed he owed them £850.

Warning from new firm arrived on day of clamping
Leo isn't the only resident in this block to have had his car towed away recently. Tyrell Peterson received a letter from South East Clamping Ltd telling him that they were the new company patrolling the car park. But the letter only arrived the day his car was towed away and didn't give a start date for clamping.

In addition, Tyrell didn't receive his permit until after his car had been towed away. An employee from South East Clamping Ltd still had at least eight permits for residents the day he was towing cars away. Unable to contact flat owners he simply gave them to another resident in the car park and asked him to deliver them for him.

Refused a receipt
Tyrell's girlfriend went to the company's compound to retrieve their car. She was charged £450 and told she could only pay in cash. South East Clamping Ltd also refused to give her a receipt, so Tyrell is worried he won't be able to appeal the fine.

Jo Abbott from the RAC Foundation was appalled to hear about the tactics of South East Clamping Ltd. She said that legislation which covers clamping companies doesn't favour the motorist at all and is on the side of the clamping company.

South East Clamping Ltd challenged Leo's injunction and both parties returned to court on Monday 2nd March. A judge ordered that Leo's car should be returned to him that day, and since South East Clamping Ltd had appeared without any paperwork, he offered them the chance to appeal the ruling within two weeks.

South East Clamping Ltd response:
With regards to Leo Ihencho and his comments to you, these comments are not actually correct and the case will be decided in court at a later late. He did manage to gain an injunction order without notifying us of the court date but the injunction order also gave us the liberty to have it set aside by notifying the court within 24 hours.

This we have done today (26 February 2009) at the Croydon County Court, therefore, we are not in contempt of court as you suggest. We cannot comment further on Leo Ihencho as the case is now subject to further hearing.

All permits were attempted to be delivered by hand and a signature gained on Thursday 12 February 2009 and Friday 13 February 2009 and Saturday 14 February 2009 and subsequent days after that. All parking regulations were also hand delivered at these times. Our signs were on the development at least four days previous to the 16 February which was our commencement date.

We will state that only one vehicle was taken by mistake and due to explanations from the resident the vehicle was released free of charge.

With regards to residents having their vehicles immobilised or removed no residents vehicle as far as we are aware was immobilised or removed that had not received a permit for which they signed for except for the one resident as stated above. We do have an appeals procedure in place for any mistakes that may occur.

South East Clamping operates a non confrontational policy at all times and all our licensed operatives conducted themselves in a legal, calm and professional manner in accordance with our instructions. We have had many residents calling us to tell us the parking facilities are fantastic and the car park is clear of all unwanted vehicles which the previous company could not manage.

It is unfortunate that parking control has to be enforced but parking facilities are scarce and the general public must be aware that they cannot park on private land. We would like to advise any person parking their vehicles on private land should always look for parking enforcement signs and adhere to them.