A WOMAN claims she had her car clamped while her daughter was on the back seat suffering a serious asthma attack.

Mother-of-four Karen Jorgenson, 52, claimed she was issued with a £100 parking ticket and a £147 "clamp release fee", when she pulled in to Trade Close, off Green Lanes, on Monday, June 22.

Ms Jorgenson said when her daughter Mellanie, who had just taken her final GCSE exam in science, began to have the attack, she started to "panic" and pulled into Trade Close, off Green Lanes, not seeing signs saying it was private land.

She said: "I wasn't really thinking straight. We went to a pharmacy [to get some medication] but my daughter became very faint and we had to turn back. We were no more than five minutes. In the past we have had to take her straight to A&E and put her on a breathing machine, and I thought, 'Here we go again'."

Ms Jorgenson said her daughter then got into the car and started vomiting and struggling for breath.

She said: "One of the men [from the clamping firm] came over and said, 'I feel for you but these are regulations and I can't break them. When you call an ambulance we are going to take the car'.

"My daughter refused to go to hospital because she thought it was all her fault.

"I couldn't understand how anybody could actually do that - watch a child have an asthma attack. It was unbelievable."

She then telephoned the girl's father to take her daughter to the hospital and called her son to come and pay the money because she said she did not have the cash.

Traders in the close said the clamping firm was employed to prevent people using the area to park their cars while they went shopping which had blocked deliveries in the past.

A manager at Newline Securities, the Edmonton-based company that issued the ticket, spoke to the staff involved in the incident.

The man, who would only give his name as Chris, said: "I heard of this asthma attack and said if that is the case, 'Let's call an ambulance'. But I was told she didn't look like she was having an attack and her son phoned up and was abusive."

He added: "If she can get proof she was having an asthma attack she can have her money back. I know there are a lot of cowboy firms out there, but we are not one of them.

"If it is that serious my guys are told to take the clamp off. The signs are there saying no trespassing on my client's land."

Jim Douglas, of the London Motorists Action Group said: "There is supposed to be a code of practice on clamping, but it is totally at the discretion of the clampers.

"We've all been there with our kids when something untoward happens and you don't think straight. If you can't pull over and deal with a medical emergency then there is something wrong.

"This has to be one of the worst cases I've heard of."