Cheap motor insurers battle for territory up north .
Insureyourmotor.co.uk are the real McCoy when it comes to cheap motor insurance. We don't turn a motor insurance drama into a crisis; we coolly go about our business of bringing you the cheapest quote in whatever part of the country you call home. The best policies, the cheapest insurance premiums - when it comes to motor insurance, Insureyourmotor.co.uk are the stars of the show. One of our journalists went on location to bring you this story..
Manchester is the setting for the latest gritty northern drama to hit our screens. Sold to us on the premise of strong emotions, tears, violence, corruption, violence, morality, fright, more violence, fear, revenge, much more violence and suspense - it has absolutely no glamour whatsoever. But it wouldn't have would it? After all its set against a typical backdrop of social depravation taken to extremes, and populated with some of the most dangerous characters ever to appear this side of a Crimewatch photo fit; Therefore it truly captures the essence of this most dreary of modern metropolises. A snap shot of a grim northern culture that strikes a chord with the Daily Telegraph readership. Who have never been there.
So who are these Stars of CCTV? And what's the story?
Well, there are heroes and Mancunians aplenty. Although most of them seem to have raided the same props wardrobe. All opting for fluorescent donkey jackets. And they're all method acting for the same lead. The part of car park attendant. And there are firearms involved. And what's this?....they appear to be loaded. Have I wondered off set?
You see, this is no ordinary production. And the realism is so plausible because it is just that - real. Welcome to the car parks of Manchester city centre. The location for this unfolding true life drama being acted out on the streets of the North-West's principal city. According to the local newspaper, the Manchester Evening News, city centre car park bosses are being forced in some cases to be paying protection money to gangs of rival criminals who are operating bogus parking scams throughout the major streets. Genuinely frightened for their lives, legitimately run car park business owners have been targeted and threatened, in a concerted bid, by warring gangland bosses, to gain a major foothold in the prime districts covered by this lucrative parking trade. The prime suspects in this unlawful intimidation racquet, that ultimately dupes credulous motorists by offering them alternate places to park, normally on some other unwary individual or business' land at inflated costs of up to £10 a time, are the notorious Salford and Cheetham Hill mobs.
Without any foibles members of these hostile fractions don fluorescent jackets, giving innocent motorists no reason to believe otherwise, the impression that they are official attendants engaged in their usual employment. Only to relieve theatre-goers, restaurant-goers and night-clubbers, of their money to enable them to park on, what more times than not, is free land. Such as the pedestrian square behind Manchester Crown Court , where they are known to charge £5 per car to squeeze you in between trees that mark the pedestrian area that separates the Crown from the Magistrates Courts.
Other areas of public land profited by these bogus car park attendants include the city's Crown Square , usually prior to a concert at the Opera House, where the perpetrators have the gall to parade around with placards directing the unquestioning motorists to park on this acquired land. On a good night 25 vehicles can be shoe-horned into this uneven, gravel area.
The revealing of this almost sinister scam is a double-edged sword though, in as much as the story needs to be told and brought to the publics attention in order for something to be done about it; however, Its directly in the aftermath of the exposing of this unlawful profiteering by the newspaper that decent, authority licensed car park owners have felt the full force of the underworld, and the lengths they will go to, to ensure they maintain the level of business they have benefited from of late. Many registered owners talk about how they've been threatened, and how they've been held to ransom over demands for protection money. And how weapons have been brandished as a persuasion technique. On top of paying out for public liability insurance, taxes and national insurance, there are no funds left for bribery costs; which often leads to some owners having little choice than to close their car parks down. They say it's not a new development, and that it's been happening for years, although nowhere near the scale that's been witnessed recently. Many are living in constant fear and frustration, brought about largely by the vulnerability of their individual and collective positions, being as they are, highly visible to their prey. To a point, a large percentage are relieved that its been brought into the open, and hope that between them, the local authorities and the police can do something to halt this alarming increase in such nefarious nocturnal activity, seemingly rife on the streets of Manchester.
You may think that the car park owners are the only victims of this highly organised crime. But you'd be wrong. Whereas for most hapless, yet stung motorists, the fraudulent exercise goes unnoticed, this was not the case for stunned driver Daniel Cohen. The unknowing theatre-goer had handed over his £5 to a bogus attendant near to the Opera House before a show, only to find on his return that he had been issued with a £70 parking ticket.
Daniel said;" We were shocked to see that our car and all the other cars there had been given a £70 parking ticket. It was only on leaving that we noticed a sign saying 'permit holders only'. On a dark, wet night it was impossible to see the sign clearly."
He complained to Euro Car Parks, the real owners and custodians of the site, and is currently waiting for a reply.
Insureyourmotor.co.uk's advice to the people of Manchester is this. Be extra vigilant. The same sort of vigilance that could net you the cheapest motor insurance out there. Whether you're Mancunian or otherwise. Operating on the right side of the law, Insureyourmotor.co.uk tracks down the cheapest motor insurance in the land - and secures the best policy for you. You can bank on it. Remember, with Insureyourmotor.co.uk you won't be held to ransom.
Date - 21/09/2006
