Airport parking boss jailed
Asad Malik used fake reviews and stole pictures of secure car parking to trick customers.
The boss of an airport parking firm has been jailed for more than a year after it was discovered he used false reviews and photos to dupe customers into booking with him.
Asad Malik, 38, of Crawley, was found guilty at Brighton Crown Court of three counts of defrauding or misleading customers. While operating out of Gatwick Airport as London Parking Gatwick and Easy Meet and Greet Gatwick, it was found he had used photographs of a hospital car park 400 miles away in Scotland to make customers believe that their cars would be safe.
However, vehicles were found dumped in fields, parked on streets and hidden in bushes. In some cases, cars were left unlocked, with the windows open or even with keys in plastic wallets on the windscreen.
Although customers were told that the car park was only 3.8 miles from Gatwick, one found that their car had racked up 185 miles while they were away. Others returned to damaged vehicles or unpaid parking tickets.