Heathrow meet and greet firm used my BMW on school run
A FATHER has told of his anger after his car was apparently used by an airport parking attendant to do the school run.
Scott Baines, 34, dropped off his BMW with a meet and greet firm at Heathrow ahead of a trip to Finland for his work as a football coach.
He collected his car four days later but three weeks after that he was sent a £165 fine for parking illegally outside a school.
The letter from Hillingdon council in West London included photographs of a man next to the silver BMW.
Mr Baines, from Leicester, said: ‘I couldn’t believe it. The first thing I thought was they had used my car for the school run. Why was this guy driving my car around?’ He had dropped off his car with Airport Central Parking on February 4 and picked it up on February 8.
The date of the offence was February 7 while he was away on his regular monthly trip to Finland.
‘I thought everything was fine but three weeks later I got a penalty fine saying I had parked my car illegally outside a school.
‘You hear horror stories about these “meet and greet” companies,’ said Mr Baines.
‘He’s been caught red-handed. It was very frustrating. The last thing you want to worry about when you are away is your car.’
Airport Central Parking said it had paid Mr Baines’ fine and was investigating why his car was outside a school.
A spokesman told The Sun: ‘We are investigating the driver. The penalty ticket has been paid off by the company. All companies move cars in between their compounds.’
It is not the first time that meet and greet firms have been caught up in controversy.
Last year, a couple told how their car was written off by an airport meet and greet service which then claimed it was not liable for compensation.
Sandra and Domenico Carnevale left their Vauxhall Zafira with MCP Gatwick Parking before flying to Turkey on holiday.
In the middle of their break, they received a call to say the vehicle had been involved in a head-on collision. It later emerged the driver was not insured to move their car.
To make matters worse, the couple’s insurer, Tesco Bank, has also refused to pay out because the car was in the care of the firm at the time of the accident.
Mr Carnevale, 50, a care home maintenance worker, said the couple were looking into launching a civil action to recover the cost of replacing their £8,500 car but had been warned they may not be successful.
In September, holidaymakers Chris and Louise Holl flew back to Manchester Airport at 3am but there was no sign of their Audi car.
They found it with police help four hours later covered in mud in a field more than a mile away where it had been dumped with hundreds of others by a rogue parking firm.