A PARAMEDIC has told how her holiday was ruined when an airport meet and greet parking assistant took her BMW on a 90mph joyride.
Kirsty Livingstone, 43, says her Rome break was ruined when police phoned to say her motor had been pulled over near Langford, in Somerset.
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She and her partner then spent most of their holiday, over Easter, dealing with the police and worrying about the car.
The driver was stopped on the A38 after clocking up speeds in excess of 90mph with no licence or insurance, Avon and Somerset Police said.
They said he would be getting a court summons letter “in due course”.
Kirsty, originally from Scotland, praised police for managing to get her car back to her quickly – it meant when she returned to the UK, she was able to attend her grandmother’s funeral in Dumfries and avoided missing any days of work.
But she said her car’s alloy wheels were scuffed due to careless parking and a tyre had a slow puncture.
She also had to pay £80 to get the tracking fixed before going to the funeral.
Kirsty explained: “We missed all our holiday activities because we were up all night both nights trying to deal with police, it was just a mess – I wish we had never gone.”
She’d thought about cancelling the trip because her grandmother had just died, but family members urged her and her partner to go as they had not had a break for a long time and the funeral was not until the following week.
She booked the parking service online and arranged to meet the driver at the airport in the early hours of Easter Saturday.
She added: “Later that night I got a phone call from Avon and Somerset Police officer telling me, ‘I’m with your BMW’.
“I told him the car was with a short-stay parking service, and he said the driver had stolen my car.
“I’ve used these kinds of services loads of times and I never thought this would happen.
“The parking at Bristol Airport is limited, that’s why meet and greet companies are so popular.”
She spoke to Bristol Airport, but was told it had nothing to do with the meet and greet services operating in its car park.
Kirsty said: “It seems bizarre to me that anybody can set up shop at the airport and they don’t do any kind of vetting.”
Meet and Greet Bristol Airport Parking Services apologised, saying the car was “taken by a trainee”.
They said Kirsty’s car had been collected and taken to one of their sites, and wen it was taken, the firm was “conducting interviews and training sessions for potential staff”.
A spokesperson added: “Those individuals that were going through the training were told specifically not to drive any of the customer’s vehicles and to simply observe how the operations were being conducted.
“However, one of the individuals without our knowledge took Ms Livingstone’s vehicle out of the site and shortly after was apprehended by the police.”
Tey had “cooperated fully with the police and returned Ms Livingstone’s car to her upon her return from holiday”.
They added: “All our staff are insured for the services we provide, and our staff go through DBS checks before they are employed.”
The company had refunded her the £57.99 booking fee, and offered £300 in compensation, while denying any damage was caused to the vehicle.
Kirsty used booking firm Airport Parking Global Services, which said it was “reviewing the situation to make sure it did not happen again”.
A spokesperson added: “Based on the volume of vehicles the operator services on a weekly basis, we do not find their complaint levels to be high – however, we will still investigate this matter thoroughly.”
Bristol Airport said “Meet and Greet Bristol Airport Parking Services is an independent business entirely unconnected with Bristol Airport and we have no control nor influence over the services provided by [the company].
“The airport advises passengers to use its on-site parking.”
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