DRIVERS are trying to claw back fines of more than £1,000 each after having their cars clamped near a doctor’s surgery.

After the Guardian revealed last week that patients from the Keyheath Medical Centre in Sewardstone Road, Waltham Abbey, had been fined up to £455 for parking in the wrong part of the centre’s car park, motorists slapped with even higher fines by clampers Citywatch have come forward.

Gaetano Montalbano, 43, was charged £1,110 for parking his van to attend a doctor’s appointment.

“As soon as I got out they clamped me,” he said. “They didn’t stop me from parking. They actually watched me park.”

He said the clampers had justified charging so much because he was driving a commercial van and said they had to pay for a tow truck to take it away.

“It’s ridiculous,” said the Osprey Road resident. “The van has a smaller wheel base than most four-by-fours.

“If it had been an 18 tonne lorry, you could justify a big tow-truck.”

He has appealed against the fine, but has not heard back from Citywatch and has since received a letter from the Security Industry Authority, which regulates clampers, telling him they were removed from its approved register on December 10.

Father-of-five Matthew Paskell, 34, was fined £1,165 just before Christmas for parking outside the surgery while he did his job, picking up abandoned shopping trolleys nearby.

“I’ve been doing the job there every Monday for the past two years,” he said. “I’ve never seen clampers there before.”

He said he thought the clampers were trying to make as much money as possible before laws banning clamping on private land come into play on January 18.

He has also appealed against the fine and said he was prepared to go to court to get his money back.

The landlord of the flats next to the car park, Mr Mossini, who refused to give his first name, said he had hired the clampers because his tenants could not park outside their homes.

“My tenants moved out because they couldn’t find a parking space,” he added. “I rent the flats with an allocated parking space.

"You're not allowed to park there, so don't park there."