Boy 'was sat in clamped car'

A grandmother has told a jury how her car was jacked up by clampers in Cannock ready to be towed away with her young grandson inside.

Tracy Cross had put 30-month old Jenson back into her clamped Kia 4x4 to keep him out of harm's way while she tried to sort out a demand for £295 from the car clampers' boss Rebecca Meakin, a court heard.

But Mrs Cross told the Stafford Crown Court jury: "I was standing next to my grandson, who was on the driver's seat, and they actually hitched up the back of my car and it was suspended by the arm of the tow truck. My grandson was on the driver's seat. He was two-and-a-half years old.

"I was hysterical, I told them to stop, but they continued to go forward, they jerked the car three times."

Mrs Cross, from Heath Hayes, said she was told she had 15 minutes to get the money in cash or the car would be towed away."

The prosecution allege the clamping operation by Rowencroft Immobilisers, owned by Meakin, was a scam and motorists using private car parks in Rugeley, Cannock and Worcester were blackmailed into handing over up to £295 to get their cars released.

If drivers did not pay, vehicles were towed away and left at unsecured sites.

Meakin, pictured, aged 27, of Millers Vale, Heath Hayes, denies a charge of conspiracy to blackmail.

The court heard another motorist clamped on the car park of the Midland Tattoo Centre in Beecroft Road was Dr Amarjit Verma, who was taking some blood samples from a 90-year-old patient to be analysed.

The trial continues.