Legal Research

Stubborn Man Wins Dispute

By Simon Fodden

A British man, Haroon Zafaryab, has won a larger victory than he planned for. His battle began, as modern struggles so often do, when his car was ticketed and “clamped” — i.e. had a “boot” attached to a wheel. He had parked in a no parking zone behind a shopping mall while he went to the mosque for Ramadan services, and his car was clamped by a private towing company, as is allowed in England. These are, apparently, free to “hunt” those who have parkd wrongly on posted private land, and they charge a hefty fee to remove the clamp.

Zafaryab felt the towing company wanted too much, and so, to prevent their towing it, he simply refused to leave his car — for thirty hours! During that time the towing company clamped all of his wheels and stuck a ticket on his windshield very half hour. By the time they were done, their reckoning was that he owed them £6,000. Meanwhile, his supporters gathered and friends from the mosque brought him food and drink.

Finally, a deal was struck whereby the towing company backed off, unclamped the car, and accepted £100.

This would be enough to lift the spirits of the common man. But, as they say, there’s more:

The government announced the same day he was unclamped that the law would be changed, forbidding private towing companies from clamping cars on private property and introducing a fairer system of ticketing.

Not bad for a bit of uncomfortable overtime.

The New York Times has the story, as, of course, does the BBC, among many others. The video below lets you see Mr. Zafaryab talk a bit about his experience.

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on August 18, 2010 (boomark / email).