Dozens of furious holidaymakers have accused an airport meet and greet parking company of ‘stealing’ their vehicles after returning home to find their cars missing.
Blue Circle parking was operating in Birmingham, Luton and Heathrow airports before closing down in April.
Customers claim they were told to contact police after finding ‘their keys had been taken’, their cars were parked off-site and in some cases racked up large fines.
More than a month on, furious families are still battling with the now defunct company to reclaim their cars and claim compensation.
Blue Circle customers were promised that after dropping their vehicles off at the terminal, professional chauffeurs would take them to their car park secured by security barriers, CCTV and 24 hour patrols. But after spending blissful weeks away in the sun, they came back to find they were greeted by confused airport staff and silence from Blue Circle.
Travellers claimed they were unable to find the meet and greet’s stand or any staff and Maple Parking, brought in to replace Blue Circle, did not have access to all the keys or know where all the cars were being kept.
One young family told MailOnline how they returned from a family holiday to Disneyland Florida to find their £60,000 Land Rover Discovery and keys had disappeared.
Another couple told how they returned from British Columbia and were forced to trek back and forth from Bristol to get their £45,000 Audi Q5 back after finding it abandoned on a strip of industrial estate.
Have YOU been affected by Blue Circle parking or a rogue parking firm? Email: arthur.parashar@mailonline.co.uk
Leah Freeman, 27, her husband and their two children. The family went to Disneyland Florida for their first holiday together before returning to find their £60,000 Land Rover Discovery was missing
The family had left their Land Rover in the hands of Blue Circle and believed it would be safely returned to them but it took the family more than two days of systematically searching all the airport’s car parks before they found it
Mrs Freeman says the whole experience has left her with a sour taste and overshadowed her first family holiday with her two small children. She has still not got her original keys back
Maple Parking confirmed they had been brought in to reunite cars with their owners but did not comment further.
Concerned car owners say they were forced to trawl social media groups and Facebook posts to track down their vehicles, discovering that far from a secure car park, their cars were being stacked up on strips of industrial wasteland.
Some cars were allegedly being driven to large boarded up hotels on the outskirts of the airport where hundreds of vehicles and their keys left in an unsecured car park.
The Crowne Plaza in West Drayton, which is two miles from the airport, was boarded up and covered in graffiti, desperate car owners said.
Via social media customers traded postcodes and locations for missing cars finding that they were being kept in unsecured car parks in closed down hotels or on the outskirts of the airport.
When customers went to rescue their vehicles they found abandoned offices with open suitcases and sleeping bags, the drawers ransacked and office furniture turned over.
Their car keys and in some cases, cars, were missing.
Families claimed they were forced to hire cars, spend hundred of pounds on taxis or ring family members to rescue them in order to get home.
Leah Freeman, 27, had returned from a family holiday to Disneyland Florida with her husband and children a week after the firm went bust only to find her £60,000 Land Rover Discovery and car keys had ‘disappeared.’
The mother-of-two said that, as per Blue Circle’s instructions on their website, her husband called the company to inform them they had landed, believing their car would be ready for them within 30 minutes.
But the family from Plymouth couldn’t speak to anyone on the phone.
She said: ‘As soon as we landed he phoned the car parking people to say we’ve landed so they’re waiting for us to come through, and he couldn’t get hold of anyone, and I was walking towards baggage, and he’s constantly trying these three numbers we were given, and nothing.
Mrs Freeman said she and her husband started to panic but decided to get their suitcases from the baggage area and go back to where they had dropped their car off.
After arriving at the car drop off point, the family were told the company had gone bust by Maple Parking, a car parking firm who had stepped in to take over.
Mrs Freeman said she was told to ring the numbers given to her on her booking slip when she arrived but said that no one answered any of the phones, leaving her stranded with her small children for hours
The Crowne Plaza in West Drayton, which is two miles from the airport, was one of the locations where Blue Circle customers said they found their cars – a far cry form the secure parking promised to them by the company
Mrs Freeman then claims she called the police before a worker from Maple Parking gave her a postcode and suggested they try to look for their car there.
Mrs Freeman said: ‘They gave us this postcode because they had had to go and collect 200 to 300 cars from this compound because they were taking over their car parking.’
Mr Freeman then took a taxi to the postcode, leaving his wife and two children, aged on and three, at the airport alone.
While the family patiently waited, Mr Freeman travelled to a strip of unused land but could not find the family’s car.
She said: ‘So my husband got a taxi there, but no key, no car, and no paperwork was in the office for our car.
‘My husband left me in Heathrow airport on my own with the two kids. I had all three suitcases with me, and the double buggy.’
After three hours of desperately searching the family were allegedly told by an ‘administrator’ for Blue Circle that they didn’t have their car.
Mrs Freeman and said the scene felt extremely ‘dodgy’.
She said: ‘This guy said he was there from the administrators sorting out all the keys. But my husband didn’t think he was official because he didn’t log who was coming and going. He was just handing all these keys out.
‘He had a piece of paper, and he was telling people to get a taxi to a location to get their cars but our car wasn’t on the list for that day or the day before.’
The family then claimed they tried three different locations where Maple Parking had previously discovered cars that had been abandoned by Blue Circle.
Ted Richards and his wife Yolande. The couple had returned from British Columbia and were forced to trek back and forth from Bristol to get their £45,000 Audi Q5 back after finding it abandoned on a strip of industrial estate
People took to Facebook to share with other worried drivers how they could get their cars back. Heidi Harper advised using what3words after her and her partner successfully reclaimed their car from outside Birmingham aiport
‘We went to the first address, which was the old Crown Plaza, which had all been boarded up, and we found cars there but not ours.
‘We followed another address but it just left us in the middle of a road and there was a hotel there, a Holiday Inn.
‘I didn’t go in there to look because I thought it was a proper hotel. I was just worried about cameras to keep an eye on the car.
‘And then there was like a little industrial bit bit further on.’
The Freeman’s Land Rover was not in any of the locations suggested by Maple Parking employees and eventually the family gave up trying to find their car and organised a hire car to make the four-hour trek back to Plymouth for Mrs Freeman’s shift the next morning.
The following day Mrs Freeman’s husband and father returned to Heathrow and after systematically exploring every terminal car park, they eventually found their car.
‘We’d seen Trustpilot reviews where people had said their cars were supposed to be in Terminal 2 but were actually in Terminal 4 or 5 so I told my husband “you’re just gonna have to literally go to every terminal”.’ Mrs Freeman said.
Despite the relief of finally finding their car, Mrs Freeman said their first family holiday together has been tarnished.
She said: ‘We had such a lovely holiday away, and it’s always going to be tainted by the memory of when our car got stolen.
‘How could somebody do this to us? They know it’s a family car, because there’s two children’s car seats in the back.
‘It’s always the kind of thing that you think happens to other people. And you see it on Facebook.
‘People were telling me just to give up, saying “You’re never going to find it” but I don’t want to just give up. But like it’s an expensive car, we work hard.’
Mrs Freeman and her husband have still not been able to contact Blue Circle and don’t believe they’ll ever receive any compensation.
Both The Met Police and West Midlands Police said there were no ongoing investigations into any car thefts related to airports or Blue Circle parking.
Amy Turner and her partner returned from a last minute break to find their car keys had been taken and there was no trace of Blue Circle parking forcing them to look for their car at midnight 4 miles from where they’d parked it
The strip of industrial estate where Ms Turner said she found her car was near a Holiday Inn. Far from a secure car park, the area was described as ‘chaos’ and unsafe
The nurse said she has been in contact with other victims who have found their car in other towns and claimed to have received thousands of pounds-worth of parking fines.
Mrs Freeman described one man at the airport who had found his car but couldn’t drive it home because it was among vehicles that were ‘parked on top of each other.’
She said: ‘This person that we met he couldn’t get out, because there was a car immediately behind. Immediately in front and left and right, like they were bumper to bump, like bumper to bumper touching basically.’
The couple said they regretted their decision to park with the company and looking back believe there were a number of issues they failed to notice at the time.
Mrs Freeman claimed that there was no official desk for Blue Circle and that staff operated out of rucksacks.
She said: ‘They didn’t have a proper desk. It was just a guy with a rucksack. In hindsight. It was really dodgy. But you’ll rush in to try and get to the airport to sort yourself out so you’re in quite a vulnerable situation.’
‘The man had a backpack full of envelopes with peoples details and their keys.
‘To advertise that it’s secure parking. Looking at what we found, it is definitely not secure parking, leaving them in an abandoned hotel.
Amy Turner found herself in a similar position when she flew from Birmingham airport to Cala Millor, Majorca for a few days as a last minute holiday.
When she returned, she alleged her car was missing and she couldn’t find any Blue Circle staff to help her.
After she landed back in the UK Ms Turner contacted Blue Circle to say she had arrived but again heard nothing back.
Having grown tired of waiting for their car to be returned to them, Ms Turner and her partner climbed into a taxi and went to a location suggested by airport staff – an industrial estate on the outskirts of the airport.
Mrs Turner said: ‘We had to get a taxi to go to our car at around 12.30 midnight and we went down. It must have been the darkest of industrial estate, no lights, no, nothing, and there was loads of men on hanging around on the gates
‘They didn’t say anything to us. Let us go in. But I felt very unsafe – the taxi man even said, “Do you want me to stay with you?”.
‘We found our car but no there was no one to hand back our key so we contacted our daughter to pick us up but we had to go out into the road and further down to a Holiday Inn to get the correct postcode to be picked up.
Ms Turner said industrial estate full of cars was ‘chaos’.
She added: ‘Some people are getting their keys back. You don’t know who to ask, How are those other people getting their keys back? Where were they?
Ms Turner is still trying to get hold of Blue Circle to return her car keys and believes she’s spent spent at least £200 trying to get her vehicle back.
An abandoned car park outside the Hilton Garden Inn, Heathrow airport where Ted and Yolande Richards found a ransacked office which had belonged to the now defunct Blue Circle parking and no security
The inside of Blue Circle’s ‘office’ on a slip of industrial land on the outskirts of Heathrow airport. The room was full of overflowing bags and broken furniture and the Mr Richards said he was able to just wander in
Ted, 73, and Yolande Richards, 69, returned from a two week holiday in Canada visiting friends when they arrived back at Heathrow to find their £45,000 Audi Q5 missing.
They tried to call the company but a voicemail said the inbox was full.
After asking airport staff, they got a taxi to an allegedly abandoned car park 4 miles away from where they’d left their vehicle.
They arrived at a rundown car park next to a Hilton hotel on the outskirts of the airport and discovered the ransacked offices of the company.
Mr Richards said: ‘We got an Uber got there and it was just like a bit of wasteland, almost, and there was nobody there.
‘There wasn’t really a security gate. It was some fencing that you could move quite easily. It may have been chained, but all you had to do was up lift it up.
‘We went over to the offices which were more like Portacabins and it was just completely and utterly ransacked.
‘I don’t know if it been people looking for keys. I don’t know who would have done it, but I went in looking for my keys, but I knew I wasn’t going to find them. They they just weren’t there.
‘There were Portacabin offices, and they were in exactly the same state.’
After finding the ransacked offices, Mr Richards phoned the police but claims he was told it was a civil matter and his car had technically not been stolen as he had voluntarily handed over the keys.
Although the couple had found their car in the car park along with around 30 others, they couldn’t drive it home because there keys were not on the premises.
Eventually they were rescued by their son who drove from Slough to collect them.
The pair from Bristol then had to return the next day via a Megabus with a spare key.
Mr Richards said: ‘Went into the main airport but no staff seemed to know what to do or had any answers so then we went to where our car was, at the Hilton car park.
‘When we got there an airport police officer was there and was telling another family that they’d picked up two men with bags full of unmarked keys.’
Mr Richards and his wife don’t hold out any hope of getting compensation or a reimbursement for their £161.99 car parking valet service.
Mr and Mrs Richards found the ransacked offices when they were trying to locate their car the day after arriving back in the UK from Canada but their keys were not on the premises and there was no paperwork
The couple said there were clothes, duvets, a TV and broken furniture and it looked like people had left in a hurry or had been living there
He said: ‘I would rate the chances as nil or less. But honestly, I just don’t think we’re going to get anything back whatsoever, and I don’t think that the insurance will give us anything, for the Uber, the Megabus, the Tube, the the this and the that I just don’t think they’re going to pay out.’
‘I was very disappointed to find I’d paid for a secure meet and greet and then the cars were just left somewhere with no security.
‘You could just walk in – which we did. We walked into the site, and we walked in again to get the car. Nobody, nobody there to stop us. There was no barriers, nothing.’
Berni Hazard, a council worker from Daventry, returned from a week in Santorini to Birmingham airport on the same day Blue Circle parking ceased operating.
After arriving at the airport she claims she was left to search for her car on her own while looking after her young children and 90-year-old mother.
The family were forced to wait in biblical downpours as they scrambled to find out how to get their cars back.
Ms Hazard said: ‘When we arrived we went to the meeting point from before there were people milling around but no one could tell us anything.
‘We asked the NCP for help and they said to ring airport police but they didn’t do anything either.
‘There were people there from Barnsley and York and one couple who had travelled from Wolverhampton.
A spokesperson for Birmingham airport said: ‘Blue Circle ceased operations at Birmingham Airport on Monday 20th May, well over a month ago. This was a third-party operator that parked its customers’ cars off-site.
‘When customers, who had booked with Blue Circle, arrived back to Birmingham, both the Airport and NCP assisted customers with the repatriation of their cars, despite this being a third-party operator. All customers who had booked Blue Circle at Birmingham were reconnected with their cars.
‘Our advice to all customers is to book with Birmingham Airport directly for the best on-site car parking deals, here.’
Ms Hazard resorted to searching through social media for clues as to the location of her car after bemused staff were unable to help her.
‘We were only able to find our car by looking on comments and posts on Facebook and typing in Blue Circle and we found that more helpful than anything else.
‘One woman had to use whatthreewords to locate her car and it was down a lane or somewhere – not even in the airport.
She eventually gave up and took a taxi home with her family and was forced to return to the airport the following day to find her car.
‘I was there from 3.30pm to 6pm and we couldn’t find out car and we were told to just go home.
‘I work for the council and I had to work from home because I didn’t have my car and I had so much work to deal with when I got back and then this added stress.
Before shutting down, Blue Circle’s website said: ‘On your return, our driver will hand over your keys and you can be on your way home in no time, no queues, no hassle. Feel like a VIP.’
But comments left on the reviewing website Trustpilot have been largely critical of the company, with testimonials showing a largely negative experience.
More than 84 per cent of customers left one-star reviews and many of the posts related to damaged vehicles, mess left in cars or not receiving refunds.
Frustrated drivers took voiced their low opinions of the company on Trustpilot following the chaos at airports across the UK
Naushad Hameed, 41, is the director of Blue Circle Parking which is the trading name of Aero Travel Extras Limited which was exposed in 2017 for parking customer cars in bus lanes
Anthony Sallis claims he spent at least £961 to reclaim his car after the firm went bust.
He wrote: ‘We booked with the above,on our return we heard company had gone bust. After 4 hours of investigation and 2 x taxis we found our keys behind Hilton hotel in a small hut, and the car in Terminal 4 short stay car park. It cost us 2 x taxis fares and £961.00 to exit the car park.’
Jenny said she wouldn’t touch the company ‘with a bargepole’ after her experience and added that she had been forced to get the police involved.
Patricia described the company as an ‘absolute shambles from start to finish’.
Tony Adams wrote: ‘I strongly recommend no body ever has any dealings with them’.
The firm say they have been operating since 2009 and have expanded from their base at Heathrow to providing services at Gatwick, Birmingham and Luton.
Blue Circle Parking is the trading name of Aero Travel Extras Limited which is run by businessman Naushad Hameed, 41.
Despite the company ceasing its operations, Mr Hameed still described himself as the director of Blue Circle Parking on his LinkedIn profile.
Neither Mr Hameed or Aero Travel Extras which runs Blue Circle could be reached for comment.
Last year MailOnline revealed that the valet parking firm was dumping expensive cars at hotels packed with migrants instead of the highly secure areas promised to customers.
Customers’ keys and personal details were being kept in transparent plastic containers stored in the boot of cars and staff were found using customer’s cars as makeshift mobile offices.
In 2017 Mr Hameed was slammed after a customer of another valet company he was the operations director of was fined after his car was illegally parked in a bus stop while he was away.
Graeme Philpot left his BMW with Drivefly when flying from Luton Airport.
He later received a £70 penalty charge notice for being ‘stopped on a restricted bus stop’ in the town centre on September 7 – two days before he returned from holiday.