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Holiday family's car is driven 800 miles while 'parked' by airport firm

Driver15

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Gatwick airport valet company drove car 800 miles while family are on holiday | Daily Mail Online

Mercedes E220 had 7,226 miles on the clock.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...n-800-miles-family-holiday.html#ixzz3mMw6he7v
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Holiday family's car is driven 800 miles while 'parked' by airport firm: Police track it through four counties – but can't prosecute because company has no idea who was behind the wheel
Phil Cockrell left £34,000 Mercedes with valet parking company at Gatwick
He saw there were 800 extra miles on clock after arriving back from Crete
It emerged that the car was used in four different counties in seven days
Police said that 15 employees from the firm had access to the vehicle




Read more: Gatwick airport valet company drove car 800 miles while family are on holiday | Daily Mail Online
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IIRC, these companies have something written in the T&Cs that they can drive cars upto 100 miles anyway? "For alternative storage sites"

Not 800, but still.
 
Surely if they put their minds to it they could find out which of the fifteen employees actually drove the car... I guess the offence is just not considered serious enough to merit proper Police investigation.
 
Surely if they put their minds to it they could find out which of the fifteen employees actually drove the car... I guess the offence is just not considered serious enough to merit proper Police investigation.

Im sure they could and know who took it, ie.. the bloke thats been on a road trip holiday in the UK !
 
May have been used as a taxi for a bit.
 
Would they not have a key logging out system in place, similar to car giant?
 
Fairly standard practice. I would treat that as the norm and not the exception. When I lived in Central London there was a big press story about a lady who received a letter advising her that her car had been recorded on several occasions "kerb crawling" This led to a major family row as her husband had access to her car. After careful investigation of the dates in question it transpired that the car had been left at a (ahem) well known garage for servicing and further diagnostic work involving overnight stays. Garage claimed the same. They couldn't say who had been driving at the time. They did accept that that it must have been one of their employees.
 
IIRC, these companies have something written in the T&Cs that they can drive cars upto 100 miles anyway? "For alternative storage sites"

Not 800, but still.

I wouldn't touch these companies with a barge pole. Even of you sign an agreement to allow them up to 100 miles usage (and why would you?), then beyond this is taking without consent, isn't it? Had the vehicle been involved in a hit and run, or acquired a few speeding/parking tickets, the proprietor of the business would have some answering to do, and should be liable. It's a very tenuous business service that you use at your peril.
 
I wouldn't touch these companies with a barge pole. ... It's a very tenuous business service that you use at your peril.

Absolutely!

I travel overseas a fair bit, and most of the time would drive to the airport myself.
Park at NCP car park, free shuttle bus to the terminal - can't be simpler :thumb:

Why would I risk some smelly w@nker doing who knows what with (and in) my car?
 
These places are notorious, many a Watchdog item about them, and always at Gatwick.

Strange that no-one's caught the dodgy car parkers at Heathrow yet.

Ferris Buler's Day Off couls have been written about them!
 
I am with Mike (MD5) and GLK on this: I would never use these companies to save a few quid.

The alternative, assuming you don't live too far from the airport of your choice is to leave the car at home and get a taxi or use the airports own long stay car park.

I live in Woking and 2 weeks parking at Heathrow is £150 but a taxi is £50 each way. No brainer really, at least for me. If I lived further away where the taxi option was uneconomic, I would use the long stay option as GLK points out.
 
I've used various car parking "services" in Heathrow regularly since the early '90s when I travelled frequently on business.

Not sure where they park it, but I've never had any issues and don't use the cheapest outfit.

Love the convenience of them bringing the car to arrivals and not having to remember where the car is or catching the shuttle after a long haul flight.
 
I use Stansted and Gatwick's official Valet parking service fairly often and I've not encountered anything like this. I think all the issues come from the non-official crew who park the cars in side streets and anywhere they can except in the airport's actual car parking areas.
 
A bigger news story would have been.

I Left my car at the Airport Valet Company and they didn't take it for their own personal use while I was away.
 
I'm amazed that:
a) the police agreed to even look in it
b) they provided the information on the cars movements
 
Mercedes connect me with geotagging would also log it i bet
 
And for older cars - this:

IMG_2939_zpsm5v9w3du.png


:thumb:
 

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