A YOUNG motorist was clamped while he was sitting in his car with the engine running.

Jordan Hall, 19, of Broughton Road, Hadleigh, pulled into a garage forecourt in Nelson Road, Leigh, to turn around, before pulling out back onto the road.

However, as he was pulling out a white truck reversed across the entrance of the garage, trapping him. Two clampers from Southend’s LBS Enforcement attached a clamp to his car and demanded a £434 release fee.

Mr Hall, a customer service adviser for Lloyds bank, said: “I was completely in shock about it all, and I didn’t really know what was happening at the time.

“When he came up to the car and started to put the clamp on, I just said, ‘what are you doing? I’m not parked’.

“It was pretty scary, and when I was on the phone to my mum she kept saying don’t get out of the car, but a second guy turned up who was really intimidating.

“He opened my car door, took the key out of the ignition and told me to get out of the car, so I had to get out because I was just so scared.”

The final bill to release Mr Hall’s car came to £500, which included a fee for it being taken to a compound overnight.

He was forced to use money he had spent five months saving to start his university course in September.

He added: “I have put in a request for more overtime at work. I’ll probably just have to start university with less money than I was hoping to.”

Marvin Sanz, who works at LBS Enforcement, said: “We do not just wait for people to do U-turns in the road. We have systems in place, and if people are parked illegally then we will deal with it according to the systems we use.

“We do not just jump on people, we are a professional company. We operate as a team, and we do what we are supposed to do. Our job is not easy at times.”

It is illegal to block someone’s path to the road. But Amy Balchin, spokeswoman for the Security Industry Authority, a watchdog for private firms, said there was an exception for clampers.

She said: “It is not illegal for a clamping vehicle to block a car in as long as they have a vehicle immobilisation licence which covers clamping, towing and blocking in.”