A businessman who left his car with a Stansted-based meet-and-greet parking operator was astonished to find that it had been used on a 120-mile joyride while he was away. Just as worryingly, the airport’s operator, BAA, says it is powerless to do anything about it.
Paul Bradley had fitted a GPS tracker in the glove box of his Audi prior to handing it to Stansted Meet and Greet, “a family-run business providing the most reliable meet-and-greet valet parking service at Stansted airport”, according to its website. “You can be confident that our parking facilities are the securest available,” the blurb continues.
Yet tracking data, using Google Earth technology, revealed that the car had done a couple of high-speed circuits of Stansted before travelling 20 miles along the A120 at up to 89mph to an industrial estate in Braintree. It then travelled south to the village of Black Notley, where it spent the night parked outside a house. Coincidentally, Stuart Quinn, owner of Stansted Meet and Greet, Stansted Valet and Hooters Parking, lives in Black Notley, where he is chairman of the village community association.
When the car was returned the following day, the petrol tank was empty. Bradley challenged the company, which has since refunded £50 of the £62 parking fee. “I should have seen the signs,” he says. “The website shows only mobile numbers and there is no company address. When I asked where the cars were parked, I was told that this was confidential, for security reasons.” Quinn refused to comment on Bradley’s case, describing it as “a confidential internal matter between us and the customer that is currently under investigation”, and confirming only that Bradley’s money had been refunded “as a gesture of goodwill”.
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BAA said that because the airport’s drop-off zone is classed as a public highway, responsibility for banning any cowboy operators lay with Uttlesford district council. “The only officially authorised valet parking operator at Stansted is Emparks, which can only be accessed via the BAA website,” it said.
Uttlesford council said that this was a matter for Essex county council trading standards, adding that it was “aware there have been several complaints about unofficial meet-and-greet services operating in the vicinity”. The county council trading standards said: “We advise consumers to use only company websites that publish a full trading address and a landline telephone number. Any concerns should be directed to Consumer Direct on 0845 404 0506.