Clamping school

But a Hampshire company has proved there's no shortage of would-be wheel clampers. Security International Group, based near Southampton, has become the first official centre for a qualification in "vehicle immobilisation".

They can't even give out their exact location because of fears of revenge attacks on their building. Already 40 people have been through the tough week of training and have passed the final exams.

Now, other prospective clampers will have to wait until well into the new year to learn the trade, because the scramble for lessons has meant the £550 five-day course is now fully booked until mid-January.

Clamping boss Clive Deacon has heralded the new qualification as a chance to "weed out the cowboys" - and says the reputation of Hampshire's clampers is in line for a much-needed boost.

One half of the course is "practical training"- fixing clamps, dealing with notices, doing the job properly. Fifteen hours, is devoted to "conflict management".

Trainees will be thrust into nightmare wheel-clamping scenarios and taught how to deal with furious and frustrated motorists.

"I think it's brilliant," said Mr Deacon. "Students learn everything from doing the job properly to dealing with drivers who become aggressive. It's designed to make the industry more accountable and it will help weed out the cowboys."

But Security International Group has seen its fair share of controversy. Two months ago, a Hampshire council leader threatened the company's clampers with an anti-social behaviour order if they did not clean up their act.

The warning came as the Daily Echo reported that a grandmother was clamped as she dropped her four-year-old granddaughter home.

In other clamping stories, a midwife was targeted while she rushed to give pain relief to a woman who had gone into labour at home, and a shoplifter leapt into an illegally parked car and made off unchallenged - while shoppers in Commercial Road were clamped.

Mr Deacon said: "We were chosen to run this course because I have spent the past three years establishing the principles of this licence.

"We worked with the awarding body to establish the training and questions."

At the beginning of the month, UK exam exam board Edexel started offering the wheel-clamping qualification - and Security International Group was the first to be accredited.

They are training ten people a week from all over the south and have even been approached by Reading University to run courses.

From March next year, every wheel clamper in the country has to have a £190 licence from the Security Industry Authority.

COULD YOU PASS THE WHEEL-CLAMPING TEST?

You're driving down the highway and you believe somebody is following you. What do you do?

a) ignore them,

b) stop the car and ask what they hell they are doing,

c) see if you continue to be followed and report it to the police,

d) pull in and see if the other car stops too.

You're on location late at night and three guys arrive and demand money and keys to your car. What do you do?

a) give them the money and keys,

b) jump in the car, lock it and phone the police,

c) try to drive away and knock them down,

d) defend yourself.

Which wheel do you clamp?

a) driver's front,

b) driver's rear,

c) passenger's front,

d) passenger's rear.

A person is standing at the entrance of your car park warning motorists not to come in and telling them he's been clamped. What do you do?

a) tell him to leave because he's interfering with business,

b) ignore him because he's on a public highway,

c) tell him that if he doesn't stop, there could be a violent attack on his person.

(Answers: C, A, A, B)