Claim that clamper made death threat is investigated

Gardaí have launched an investigation into claims that a clamper has issued a death threat to a member of the public.

Gardaí at Donnybrook, Dublin, have interviewed the person to whom the alleged threat was issued and have taken a statement from the clamper.

The investigation centres on a telephone call made to the victim. A caller left a message on the answer machine of the man's mobile phone warning he would "end up at the bottom of the Liffey".

Gardaí have a taped copy of the message. They have traced the mobile phone on which the call was made. Gardaí have spoken to the owner of the phone, who is believed to be the brother-in-law of the clamper who made the call.

The man to whose phone the call was made alleges that the message was just one in a series of nuisance calls made to his phone by the clamper.

When contacted last night, Control Plus, which operates clamping in Dublin on behalf of Dublin City Council, said it was aware a Garda investigation was under way.

"Control Plus has immediately launched a full investigation into the matter and is co-operating with the Garda, the outcome of which will be dealt with accordingly," the company said in a statement.

The alleged victim is known to many of the city's clampers because he has conducted an anti-clamper campaign in recent years. The man has mounted placards in one city centre location warning motorists as to the location and times that clampers are active.

He has also stood beside clampers with similar placards as the clampers have clamped cars around the city. Dublin City Council recently relaxed the times of clamping in the area close to the man's home after he lobbied the council on the issue.

The Garda investigation is one in a series of incidents involving clampers in Dublin and Galway in recent years. In February of last year Dublin City Council took the unusual step of reminding clampers they had no right to break the law while going about their business.

That warning followed an incident on Middle Abbey Street when a motorist was surrounded by seven clamper vehicles as he tried to leave the area while his commercial vehicle was being wrongly clamped in a loading bay. Control Plus was forced to issue a public apology last May after an incident where its staff clamped two cars outside a doctor's surgery in Galway during a medical emergency.