Undercover reporters helped recover a £150 fine for a church minister as part of an ongoing anti-clamping campaign.

Following a tip-off, a reporter and cameraman from the Milton Keynes Citizen went to some business units in the Bletchley area of the town after a resident complained of clampers operating without the landlord’s permission.

It transpired the clampers had been asked to monitor the area after being contacted by a hairdresser that worked there.

The Citizen cameras captured a worker clamping a car belonging to a church minister, despite not having permission from the land owner.

Reporter Anna Sexton stepped in to confront the clamper and made sure the £150 fine was returned to the minister who had been delivering bibles nearby.

The landlord of the units told the Citizen that he had given no-one permission to clamp on his land but the clamping company said it had been given permission by one of his tenants who runs a hair salon.

As a result of the Citizen’s operation, the clamping company has told the Johnston Press weekly it will pull all clampers from the area.

Last July the Milton Keynes Citizen launched its ‘Clamping Down on Clampers’ initiative after 40 victims contacted a local MP complaining about rogue operators in the town.

Citizen deputy editor Craig Lewis said: “When we launched the campaign we were swamped with complaints and many people had some real horror stories.

“Since then we have built up a database of people who have fallen victim to the clampers.

“This latest investigation was a chance to catch them in action. Multimedia played an important part through the videoing of the incident and reporter Anna Sexton was able to get the clampers to repay the victim.

“To then use our evidence to persuade the clamping company to withdraw from the area in question was a real result.

“The story had everything; ‘dodgy’ clampers, a church minister delivering bibles as the victim and ultimately justice was done.”

Comments

Onlooker (12/02/2010 11:16:14)
First class local reporting – and not a celebrity journalism degree in sight.

Ruthie (15/02/2010 09:30:30)
Well done Anna!