The clamping ban, due to be introduced today in Parliament, is said to end the misery private clamping companies were causing drivers, but NoParkingFine disagrees.

Safiya Hussain, director and lawyer of www.noparkingfine.co.uk, says that "clamping companies will simply venture into the multi-million pound industry of private parking fines. In fact, they may find this a more prosperous avenue of getting at drivers".

"There was once upon a time when most private parking companies used clamping as a way of cornering innocent drivers," said Hussain. "That was until they latched onto the idea that private parking fines were a more lucrative way of making money – the modern way.

"They install CCTV cameras on their car parks, sit-back and allow a computer to determine which driver is falling foul of their ‘rules’, and then automatically process a parking fine for £100 or so which is then posted to the drivers home.

"This is perfect for them, as there is no purchasing of clamps required and no hiring of man-power needed. Yet the same sum of money is made as the unbeknown public immediately pay up."