Hundreds left stranded after airport parking f irm goes bust
‘We were left totally in limbo’
HOLIDAYMAKERS who left their cars with a parking firm at Gatwick Airport flew home to find their cars had vanished and the company collapsed.
Police had to step in to reunite stranded passengers with their vehicles, many of which were found abandoned across Sussex and Surrey.
Some were left ‘in limbo’ for more than 24 hours, while others have still yet find their cars.
They had used the meet-and-greet parking firm Gatwick First Parking, which had promised to keep their cars in secure car parks covered by CCTV.
But the firm – which is not Gatwickapproved and has no relationship with the airport – appears to have ceased trading earlier this month. Its website has been suspended and the owner is said to have packed up his office overnight and disappeared.
Police said around 120 vehicles were found parked across Sussex and Surrey.
Another 30 sets of keys have been found at an office, but those vehicles are still missing.
One couple and their young twins were left wandering the streets in the middle of the night after returning from Portugal to find their car gone.
Kyle and Libby Augustin had to pay £130 for a taxi to get home to Tenterden, Kent, with one-yearold Zeal and Izola – who has cerebral palsy – at midnight on Saturday. They had paid £60 for valet parking.
Mrs Augustin, 30, said she thought the car had been stolen when they could not find it.
‘When we first landed it was absolutely horrible,’ she said.
‘The kids were tired and we had hoped to just get them in the car ... Instead we had to run around the airport looking for our car and then had to get a taxi. We tried to get hold of the firm where we’d dropped off the car but there were no signs up, they had just disappeared.’ After several days of wrangling with Sussex Police, the family’s car was eventually returned on Monday night.
Matthew Waring, 28, from Gloucester, also paid £60 to leave his car while he and his girlfriend Carly Hale went to Cape Verde. They returned on Monday to find the Honda Civic missing.
They had to stay at the airport overnight in a 14-hour wait to be reunited with their car, which had been abandoned on an industrial estate in Crawley. Mr Waring said: ‘We tried ringing [the firm] but we weren’t getting through, we checked the website but it was down. We were totally in limbo.
‘Police were telling us it was a civil matter and to contact Trading Standards ... The car was meant to be securely parked but it was found on an industrial estate with lorries having to squeeze past it.
‘We haven’t been able to get hold of the company since. The whole thing’s been a nightmare.’
Gatwick First Parking’s director is listed as Umar Irshad, who is said to have vanished on Friday night. Mr Irshad, 31, ran the firm from an office in Horley, Surrey, but suddenly closed it without telling his customers or landlord Dedman Properties Ltd.
Dedman owner Grahame Dedman told MailOnline: ‘We didn’t have any notice they were leaving...The first we heard of it was when police arrived at the offices on Saturday night. We can’t get hold of them.’