Rogue airport parking firm run by convicted fraudster is leaving holidaymakers’ cars unattended on public roads rather than in secure compounds
- Rogue airport parking firm leaving holidaymakers’ cars on free public roads
- Legacy Parking, which charges around £60 a week, leaves cars unattended
- The firm parks around 200 cars a week and is on course to make more than £200,000 profit in its first year of trading
Angry: Alex Ross-Scott, whose Audi was left on a public street
A rogue airport parking firm run by a convicted conman is leaving holidaymakers’ cars unattended on free public roads rather than in secure compounds.
Legacy Parking, which charges around £60 a week, says on its website that customers’ vehicles are kept in a ‘fenced and secured parking facility’.
But a six-month investigation into the company – where cars were monitored with tracking devices – revealed they are left unprotected on streets near Gatwick Airport in Sussex.
It is claimed the firm parks around 200 cars a week and is on course to make more than £200,000 profit in its first year of trading.
According to a dossier seen by the Daily Mail, the vehicles are kept on an industrial estate where car drivers park for free.
This week, the Mail saw dozens of cars there covered in dust, suggesting they had been parked for a long time while their owners were away on holiday. Pictures and tracking device data from the undercover investigation involving test deliveries of cars established that Legacy Parking leaves customers’ vehicles there.
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A six-month investigation into the company – where cars were monitored with tracking devices – revealed they are left unprotected on streets near Gatwick Airport in Sussex. It is claimed the firm parks around 200 cars a week and is on course to make more than £200,000 profit in its first year of trading
The company also uses two secure car parks which it does not have legitimate access to, according to sources. Its ‘meet and greet’ drivers are believed to use pin codes to gain unauthorised access.
Legacy Parking is owned and run by disgraced accountant Vimal Patel, 35, who defrauded a former employer out of £155,000 to feed a gambling addiction and narrowly escaped a prison sentence five years ago
Legacy Parking is owned and run by disgraced accountant Vimal Patel, 35, who defrauded a former employer out of £155,000 to feed a gambling addiction and narrowly escaped a prison sentence five years ago.
Undercover footage shows Patel collecting a customer’s vehicle from a car park at Gatwick in March. Evidence shows the car was later parked on a public street, not a safe compound.
Last night a furious customer called on trading standards officials to close down Patel’s firm. Recruitment director Alex Ross-Scott, 31, who found out that his Audi A3 convertible had been parked on a public street, demanded tighter regulation of ‘meet and greet’ firms at Gatwick.
He was stunned when an investigator contacted him to say it had been kept on a street while he and his fiancée were on holiday in Portugal last month. Pictures show it was left on Whittle Way at the Manor Royal industrial estate near Gatwick.
Mr Ross-Scott, who lives in Sussex, said: ‘We thought getting a meet and greet service meant the car would be parked in a 24-hour gated area. If anything had happened to my car, the insurer would not have covered it.
Undercover footage shows Patel collecting a customer’s vehicle from a car park at Gatwick in March. Evidence shows the car was later parked on a public street, not a safe compound
‘The company should be closed down. It is misrepresentation of sale.’ Last night Legacy failed to respond when asked to comment and Patel was said to be not at his home in Crawley.
Gatwick Airport said: ‘Gatwick has never had a relationship with the company.’ It recommended passengers use officially-approved car parks.
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