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Big brother watching for car park cheats
MOTORISTS who try to get away with parking in reserved areas at Meadowhall were today given a sharp warning: Big Brother is watching you!
One family dropped their attempts to avoid a parking fee after they were told that their entire visit to Meadowhall had been captured on camera.
The Sheffield mum and dad took their daughter shopping and enjoyed VIP parking in a disabled bay just yards from the Argos entrance.
The dad later returned to find his car clamped – and he then got grandad, a genuine blue badge holder, to come to their aid and back up their claim that they were with a disabled passenger, Meadowhall parking bosses say.
But the whole episode was captured on the centre's CCTV system and when confronted they immediately dropped their demands.
Meadowhall introduced clampers three weeks ago to crackdown on parking problems in response to an avalanche of complaints about bad parking, including blue badge abuse.
Meadowhall security officer Tony Turner trawled eight hours of footage from 20 cameras to challenge the family's claims.
The son had claimed he dropped his disabled father at the M&S entrance before parking near Argos.
But the centre uses an automatic number plate recognition system which records every vehicle and the car was only clocked once – entering the Argos zone.
Mr Turner said CCTV footage shows three people, two adults and a girl, walking normally away from the car. There is no sign of the elderly man, who walks with the aid of a stick.
Film from inside the centre shows the family of three shopping, before dad returns on his own – and finds the clamp.
It was not until 30 minutes later that the elderly man appears anywhere on camera – and only at the Argos entrance, Mr Turner said.
He is not seen being collected from The Oasis area of the Meadowhall centre by his son, as the family had claimed.
The family spent 30 minutes arguing that the elderly man had knocked the blue badge into the footwell, but the clampers were suspicious at the delay in the old man's appearance and insisted on payment.
The family demanded a refund from Meadowhall management but immediately abandoned their claim when told about the footage.
Mr Turner said: "From the information I have seen I believe the blue badge holder was not in the car and was not in the centre, as they claimed.
"It's not an isolated incident, it was time for a crackdown. Now we are seeing more free disabled spaces and I think those who abuse the system are being flushed out."
In a separate incident, footage shows a young couple parking in a disabled bay and entering Meadowhall. When they return to the vehicle to find the car clamped the girl disappears and later re-enters at a different entrance with a middle-aged man – who has a real blue badge.
They argue for an hour, but fail to overturn the fee.
Head of security Mick Osborne said: "The whole issue of hiring clampers was driven by customer complaints."
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Weather for Sheffield
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: East
