Manchester airport parking firm writes off holidaymaker's car

Julia Hickling's car was damaged while she was away on holiday

A woman whose car was written off by an airport parking firm while on holiday has called for increased regulation of meet and greet services.

Julia Hickling left her Citroen C2 with Cheshire Meet and Greet before flying from Manchester Airport to Croatia.

Her car was wrecked within 36 hours of being dropped off but Miss Hickling was not told until she arrived home. The vehicle has never been returned.

The firm has said the car was damaged in an accident with another vehicle.

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Miss Hickling has called for improvements to the regulation of meet and greet parking services

The company charged with the care of the car has refused to speak to the BBC except via email

Miss Hickling, from Barnsley, left her car with the firm on 8 April in "pristine condition" but when she returned on 23 April a company representative said it had been involved in an accident.

"I thought everything would be fine and my car would be tucked up under a blanket under CCTV surveillance," she said.

"[After I was told about the incident] I asked numerous questions about where my car was, about the few belongings I left in it, but there were no answers.

"I appreciate accidents happen, but its the lack of communication, the not knowing what's happened to the car.

"There has to be some regulation. I don't know what the answer is but something needs to be done. It's just not acceptable."

Cheshire Meet and Greet said the car had been involved in an accident

The vehicle has not been returned to Miss Hickling following the incident in April

Miss Hickling has since been reimbursed for the loss of her car by her insurers, who also provided photos of the damage.

The BBC has made repeated attempts to contact Cheshire Meet and Greet but nobody has been available to comment.

However, in an email sent to the Jeremy Vine show, company director Lee Anderson said: "The accident, repeat accident, occurred when a passing car squeezed my driver into a BMW that was illegally parked, the airbag was deployed which made my driver accelerate.

"It caused damage to more than three cars, he hit a wall and wrote off Julia Hickling's car. It was reported to police."

Cheshire Constabulary said it had been called to a crash at Lymm, near Warrington, involving "a red Citroen which collided into a white BMW, blue Toyota and a Vauxhall Corsa" on 9 April.

Officers attended and there were no injuries, the force added.