A regional daily’s special investigation saw a journalist confront a man offering ‘secure’ airport parking services in a pub car park on camera.

The Manchester Evening News launched the investigation into ‘meet and greet’ parking offered by companies at Manchester Airport flooded by horror stories from motorists who had returned from holiday to find worrying dash cam footage – and questionable mileage.

The MEN found unofficial firms were leaving vehicles in pub car parks in the suburb of Wythenshawe, despite offering secure compounds with 24-hour surveillance and manned sites in promotional literature.

One driver was confronted by MEN transport reporter Charlotte Cox, with video footage being uploaded to the newspaper’s website.

The man, whose image is obscured in the video, only offered responses of “no comment” to several of Charlotte’s questions about his company’s operations.

The MEN broke the story on its site on Monday night, also splashing on it in yesterday’s edition, pictured above.

Said Charlotte: “We decided to investigate after readers got in touch with stories about how they had been stung by some meet and greet firms.

“Initially, we only knew of one firm using a pub car park – but by spending time in Wythenshawe, we established there were a number of firms using pubs in the area and it turned into a bigger issue.

“We broke the story online last night and the reaction was instant – our web audience was really engaged and got back to us with so many stories about their experiences which will now provide some interesting follow-ups.”

Wayne Ankers, the MEN’s associate editor for live news, added: “This issue was also big enough for us to splash on it and do a spread inside and it is a great example of how strong investigative reporting on an issue that affects lots of people can work both digitally and for print.”