Completing a Passplus driving course is another way of keeping premiums down. The scheme, which was set up in 1995, involves a course of six driving lessons with an approved driving instructor, and covers driving on motorways, rural roads, in different weather conditions and night-driving.Successful drivers earn a certificate issued by the Driving Standards Agency. Sixty per cent of motor insurers support the scheme, giving drivers with the Passplus certificate a discount of up to 20 per cent on their premium.Useful numbers: Passplus: 0115 901 2633; ABI: 0208-600 3333; Peoples' Choice: 0800 11 22 33; Swinton: 0161 923 4411; AA Insurance: 08705 332211; Age Concern: 08547 125816; Avon: 01789 414211; Axa: 0800 747576; CIS: 0800 868500; Barclays: 0870 600 1414; Cornhill: 0800 435 340; CSMA: 0800 669944; Direct Line: 020-8686 2468; Eagle Star: 0800 333800; Irontrades: 01642 22 74 24; Norwich Union: 0800 888111; Pearl: 08456 101112; Prudential: 0800 300 300; Royal & Sun: 0800 300 220. Drivers are facing intimidation and extortionate fines in a last hurrah by cowboy wheel clampers' before they are outlawed, motoring organisations said yesterday. Drivers are facing intimidation and extortionate fines in a last hurrah by cowboy wheel clampers' before they are outlawed, motoring organisations said yesterday. Clampers are charging drivers up to £670 to recover their cars as they capitalise on a legal void to make as much cash as possible before new regulations come into force. The RAC Foundation says it fears that in the meantime, clampers will stretch existing laws to their limits and use staff recruited from prisons to provide the muscle to persuade reluctant motorists to pay up.Wheel clamping on private property has provoked thousands of complaints about intimidation and extortionate fines, but local authorities and police have virtually no powers to tackle them.

A campaign for a change in the law led to the Private Security Industries Act being passed just before the general election. It introduced licensing for clampers, banned anyone with a criminal record from working for a clamping firm and set up a new authority to regulate the industry.However, it is unlikely to come into force before 2003 and the Foundation fears that motorists face a two-year free-for-all. Edmund King, a spokesman for the Foundation, said it was putting pressure on the Home Office to speed up the introduction of the law and had already asked for a meeting with the new Home Secretary, David Blunkett."We think the problem is that some of the clamping companies think they have a free reign for now, and some of them may go all-out to maximise their profits in the short term. We know that clamping companies are advertising in Brixton jail. If they are doing that they will have criminal records and the new law will put them out of business."The danger is that they may take the opportunity in this void and go all-out to put up prices, charge extortionate fines, and hit as many people as they can," Mr king said.The Foundation is monitoring rogue clampers and says it already has six complaints that it will pass on to the new authority when it is set up.

One of those involves a driver who had his van "double" clamped in London and was charged £670 to recover the vehicle, which he needed for work.In another recent case, Debbie Wolfe, a television producer, was forced to pay £345 in penalties for parking in a private road in Golders Green, north London. She said warning signs were so high on lamp posts that they could hardly be seen and did not make clear what the parking penalties were.The street where she was clamped is under the control of Barnet Council, but the authority said it has virtually no powers against the company involved, Area Parking Control (APC), because it is a private road. Drivers clamped by the company have complained of an intimidating atmosphere when they go to collect cars from a pound under an M1 flyover in Mill Hill, north-west London.However, police generally cannot take action against clampers unless there is an allegation of assault or criminal damage made against a company. A spokesman for Barnet Council said the activities of APC demonstrated how the law was "deficient" in dealing with clampers and that more powers should be given to police and local authorities to deal with the problem.A Home Office spokeswoman said the new authority should be operational by about 2003.