Woman down €3,000 after car towed without her knowledge

A WOMAN had to fork out €3,000 for a new car after her old model was impounded for three weeks without her knowledge.

After discovering her car was missing from Cork city centre, Sarah O’Regan, 26, contacted gardaí and the city pound, but there was no record of her 93D Fiat Cinquecento.

After two weeks, she assumed her car was stolen and paid €3,000 for a Ford Ka which she needed for work. However, a week later she received a letter from the council informing her that her Cinquecento had been sitting in the pound for three weeks. The letter said she was liable for the €160 towing fee plus almost €600 in storage fees.

Sarah parked her car on Windmill Road in the city centre on Wednesday, June 8. She went to pick it up the following Tuesday but it was gone.

“I immediately went to Anglesea Street Garda Station to report it missing,” she said.

A garda contacted the pound, but was told there was no record of the car.

“But about a week later I got a letter telling me that the city pound had been storing my car for the previous few weeks and that I had to either cough up the bones of €800 or give them permission to scrap my car,” she said.

A spokesman for the council, which operates the clamping policy under contract to Control Plus, defended the system last night.

“If a car is to be lifted, the operator contacts staff at the pound, who immediately notify gardaí at Anglesea St,” he said.