Airport parking boss jailed after leaving cars in fields with keys taped to windscreen

The boss of an airport parking firm has been jailed for more than a year after it was discovered he used false reviews and photos to dupe customers into booking with him.

Asad Malik, 38, of Crawley, was found guilty at Brighton Crown Court of three counts of defrauding or misleading customers. While operating out of Gatwick Airport as London Parking Gatwick and Easy Meet and Greet Gatwick, it was found he had used photographs of a hospital car park 400 miles away in Scotland to make customers believe that their cars would be safe.

However, vehicles were found dumped in fields, parked on streets and hidden in bushes. In some cases, cars were left unlocked, with the windows open or even with keys in plastic wallets on the windscreen.

Although customers were told that the car park was only 3.8 miles from Gatwick, one found that their car had racked up 185 miles while they were away. Others returned to damaged vehicles or unpaid parking tickets.

One man discovered the scam while on holiday in Spain when he spotted his car on an ITV news broadcast. Keegan Bowes had paid for secure parking but saw his Mini in the background of a news item. He phoned his mother to collect the car but she found that the passenger door wouldn’t open and the sat nav was missing.

The Telegraph reported Judge Paul Tain saying of the company: “It was almost as if it was a joke. One example was a customer complaining about cigarette ash in the car, and were told it must have blown in through the window of another car. Another reported their clutch was burnt out.

“That exemplifies the approach being taken, customers that had difficulties were fobbed off in the hope they would go away.”

More than £1.4m passed through Malik’s account during 20 months of trading. He was jailed for 14 months and banned from being the company director of any firm for four years.