By Paul Britton & Zesha Saleem
A man's £30,000 car was written off after it was crashed by Manchester Airport valet staff in a multi-storey car park.
Andrew Swindells, 47, gave the keys to his BMW One series to staff after paying just short of £100 for the airport's valet-style 'meet and greet' parking service. This was before flying out to the US for a business trip. Soon after his phone alerted him to a "serious collision" as he was having dinner in Chicago days later.
Completely unaware of what was happening, he was then called by BMW to ask him if he was alright and tell him to pull over immediately. Upon arrival in Manchester, the father-of-two was taken up to the top floor of a multi-story car park, where he saw the BMW crashed into a concrete bollard. He said the airport has now settled with his insurers. The airport, meanwhile, has also now apologised.
The car itself - bought second-hand by Andrew 12 months ago at three months-old - was left up on the car park for weeks because it couldn't be moved. He was also critical of the level of customer service he got from the airport. The IT product manager likened the scenes at the airport to 'something out of Only Fools and Horses'.
He said: "It all happened at the end of January, but it has taken ages for the airport to sort the insurance out. It dragged on and on. It's valet parking and they move the car to another site on the airport. It ended up within the boundaries of the airport on the top storey of a seven-storey multi-storey." During the trip I received notifications from the in-car telemetry to tell me it had been involved in an accident. Upon returning, I found the car had been driven into a concrete block, whilst being moved by the airport driver."
"The airport team told me the car was being driven slowly and safely, however the car has been written off by the insurance company. They managed to completely write it off by crashing it into a concrete block," he told the Manchester Evening News. I just thought the sensors had gone at first and ignored it, then I got a call from BMW about 20 minutes later. They phoned me to ask me if I was ok - I was completely unaware of what was going on. I tried to phone the airport but couldn't get an answer."
Andrew said he eventually got through on the phone from America and was told by the airport the car had been in an accident, but given no details. He said: "I landed back in Manchester on January 27 and went to the meet and greet reception. There were two managers waiting for me. I have to say they were really good.
"They said 'yes, your car has been in a crash. We need to show you what happened'. We went up to the car park and it was smashed into a post. I was just completely surprised. They said the driver misjudged a turn." The telemetry said it was being driven between 20 and 30mph at the time. They had to leave it in situ for the insurance assessment. It was up there for weeks."
Andrew said he was given a hire car while the situation was dealt with by his insurers and the airport's. He said: "Eventually they came back and said the car's a write-off. They offered to pay me market value and we went back and forward for weeks. Eventually they made me an offer which I agreed to. Apart from when I met with the managers on the Saturday, I have had no contact from the airport. I had to chase them."
A Manchester Airport spokesperson told the Manchester Evening News: "We apologise to Mr Swindells for the damage to his car and have worked with his insurance company to ensure he is fully compensated." Thousands of passengers use our Meet and Greet products every week and incidents leading to any kind of damage are extremely rare."