Diabetic OAP fury after car clamped; WRANGLE: pounds 350 charge after man stops for ten minutes to use a toilet.

Byline: Jasbir Authi

HEARTLESS clampers charged a diabetic pensioner pounds 350 after he parked his car for less than ten minutes to use a toilet for medical reasons.

Musgrave Caesar, aged 75, offered to pay Midway Parks heavies pounds 150 after he returned from an emergency trip to the toilet to find his car clamped.

But the clampers declined his cash and took his car back to their depot in Bordesley Green. Then they insisted he stump up an extra pounds 200 to reclaim his car.

The retired British Rail signalman was forced to pay up. And he had to pay a further pounds 17 in taxi fares to take him home to get the cash.

Mr Caesar, who has ten children and 17 grandchildren, said: "I'm feeling terrible. I'm mad about what's happened. I want to be refunded the pounds 200 as I offered to pay pounds 150 on the spot. My wife and I are pensioners and we cannot afford this."

Mr Caesar said he briefly parked his Volvo outside the snooker hall opposite Digbeth Coach Station at around 3.15pm on July 8. The grandfather said: "I'm a diabetic and I really needed to use the facilities. I was less than 10 minutes. But when I returned clampers had put a clamp on the front wheel and were attempting to put another on the back wheel. They said a truck had already been called to take my car away."

Mr Caesar said he eventually got through to the company and had had to take a taxi, which cost him pounds 5, to their premises on Midland Street in Bordesley Green.

He said: "I couldn't go in. They dealt with me outside a gate and wanted pounds 350 in cash.

"I was astonished, who walks around with that kind of cash on him?" Mr Caesar said he and his wife were very distressed and were forced to get a taxi, which cost them a further pounds 12, back to their home. He then returned to the site and got his car back.

He has appealed to Midway Parks to get his pounds 200 back but has heard nothing.

A spokeswoman for Midway Parks said: "We will respond to the appeal within 14 days.

"The signage clearly says that the clamp fee is pounds 150. If the car stays on site any time thereafter there will be another pounds 200 fee."

When we asked who decides how long before the car is towed away, she added: "The time between the clamp going on and the truck arriving depends entirely on where the towtruck is in the city."

n Earlier this year 18-year-old Emily Ritson, from Cambridgeshire, won her pounds 523 claim against the company after her car was towed leaving her stranded 80 miles from home with no money in Birmingham city centre late at night.

CAPTION(S):

The demand left by the clampers Pensioners Musgrave and Bertha Caesar, from Small Heath, had their car clamped after parking to use a toilet in Digbeth.