There is no specific offence of illegally clamping a vehicle on private land or fraudulently issuing a penalty ticket for parking on private land. The Private Security Industry Act 2001 provides for the regulation of vehicle immobilisers carrying out licensable activities and for a range of offences which include using an unlicensed wheel-clamper. The most common offence prosecuted under the Act is “conduct prohibited without a licence”. This would include carrying out, without a licence, not only wheel-clamping and related activities but also the other types of activity which are licensable under the 2001 Act, such as manned guarding and door supervision. Numbers of prosecutions and convictions for 2004 to 2006 for these offences and for the offence of carrying out conduct prohibited without a licence are shown in the following table. The data for the second and third categories do not break down further the licensable activities to which the prosecutions are related.
2004 2005 2006 Offence Statute Proceeded against Found guilty Proceeded against Found guilty Proceeded against Found guilty Offence of using unlicensed security operatives Private Security Industry Act 2001 S.5(1)(4) — — 3 — 13 8 Offence of using unlicensed wheel clampers operative Private Security Industry Act 2001 S.6(1)(4) — — 2 — — — Right to use approved status Private Security Industry Act 2001 S.16(2)(a)&(4) 5 4 1 1 1 1 Imposition of requirements for approval Private Security Industry Act 2001 S.17(2)(a)&(4) 6 6 159 65 141 84 Conduct prohibited without a licence Private Security Industry Act 2001 S.3(1)(6) — — 1 — 1 — Powers of entry and inspection Private Security Industry Act 2001 S.19(5)(a)(b) & (c) & (7) — — — — — — False information Private Security Industry Act 2001 S.22(1)(b)(2) — — — — — — Total 11 10 168 66 156 93 1 These data are on the principal offence basis. 2 Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used.