Protection of Freedoms Bill (Programme) (No. 3)

I used to be one of the Automobile Association's retained counsels. That is not necessarily a recommendation, but it is a past fact that I must acknowledge. I am no longer one of its retained counsels, and I am no longer a wheel-clamping specialist, but I was the counsel who represented Mrs Marina Vine. On 6 March 1997, she went to Langthorne hospital in Leytonstone. She was suffering from ulcerative colitis, and effectively she was being tested for a type of cancer. She left hospital, and on her way home, she felt violently sick. She pulled over to the side of the road, went on to what turned out to be private land, and was violently sick approximately 15 yards away from her car, just around a corner from it. In the time that intervened before her return—approximately three to four minutes—her car was wheel-clamped. She literally had to beg the clamper to release her car, but they would not do so unless she paid £105. Everyone in the House, whether they have been here for as little as 18 months, as I have been, or for longer, understands that there is a significant problem with wheel clamping which, it is fair to say, the previous Government attempted to address—no one disputes that. It is right that we should change the law to try to reform it, but I wish to stress one point. The hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull North (Diana Johnson) has tabled new clause 15, which seeks to make it a criminal offence to issue an excessive parking charge. I do not intend any disrespect to the hon. Lady, but section 1 of the Fraud Act 2006, which was introduced by the previous Government, the Theft Act 1968 and other measures that deal with obtaining property by deception apply in circumstances in which someone commits an offence without lawful authority—effectively dishonestly—and requires a driver or anyone in possession of a vehicle to pay a parking charge in relation to a contract to park that vehicle. Effectively, those people take money from someone in circumstances in which they have no lawful authority to do so. I have no objection to reforming or tightening up the law in relation to wheel clamping, but the new clause alleges that it creates a new criminal offence, when that is manifestly not the case.