A HOLBEACH pensioner claims her car was illegally clamped at a town hotel and is battling to win back the £50 she had to pay to get it released.
Rose Ayling (68) parked at The Chequers Hotel on November 29 and nipped to QD Stores for a couple of bits of shopping before returning to the hotel intending to pick up its Christmas menu for a possible Age UK lunch there.
Mrs Ayling said her car was only at the premises for 15 minutes but it was clamped and she had to go into the hotel and pay £50 on a card terminal to get it released.
She said: “I told the landlord my colleague had asked me to get the menu and he kind of said ‘I don’t believe you’.”
A colleague contacted the hotel to confirm Mrs Ayling had been there on Age UK business.
Mrs Ayling said: “They were most rude to her. Of course we didn’t have lunch there.”
The pensioner took her case to Trading Standards, which referred her to the Security Industry Authority – the licensing authority for wheel-clampers – and it has been reported to Crimestoppers.
Mrs Ayling says she’s been told that the hotel does not have a wheel clamping licence and she believes that means her car was clamped illegally and she’s entitled to her money back.
She has written to the hotel asking for a refund but had no reply.
A spokesman for the Security Industry Authority said: “By law, anyone involved in the clamping chain and operating on private land must hold and display a valid SIA licence including the person who collects the fee.
“If we identify offences under the Private Security Industry Act 2001, we will pursue them through the enforcement channels available to us.”
Landlord Mark Andrews declined to comment to the Spalding Guardian.
l The hotel faces a licensing panel review this month following police concerns about fights and violence on the premises.