A grieving family has been left distraught after a hearse was clamped for having no car tax in the middle of a funeral.
An enforcement company swooped as the vehicle was parked outside a mosque in Bristol where the service was taking place.
Hearse owner Mohammed Aslam was forced to pay a £260 on-the-spot fine to free it, despite insisting he had not had a tax reminder from the DVLA.
Mr Aslam, who runs a funeral hearse and taxi business, said the clamping outside Bristol Central Mosque in Easton was ‘outrageous’.
‘You’d think they would have some respect for the fact that there is a funeral going on,’ Mr Aslam said.
The grieving family mourning their loved one at Bristol Central Mosque were distraught when they found the hearse (pictured) had been clamped
‘Normally I don’t make this kind of mistake because it’s my business, but I did think they’d have more respect.’
Abdi Rizak, partner of the granddaughter of the person who died, said: ‘We took the body but then they clamped the car. The family were very upset.’
Mr Aslam said that after paying the £260 fine he spent 45 minutes on the phone trying to get through to the DVLA to pay the £145 tax fee.
His brother Mohammed Osman, who traveled from Birmingham to Bristol for the day to help at the funeral, said the family were ‘very on edge’.
‘I popped back to the house to get something and I came back and it was clamped,’ Ms Osman said.
‘The family were very on edge about what would happen but I said we would get it sorted.’
One bystander said the scene aptly depicted the old saying that nothing is certain in life except death and taxes.
NCL, the private enforcement company NCL responsible for the clamping on behalf of the DVLA, has since apologised to the deceased’s family and refunded the £260 release fee.
‘Whilst the vehicle was untaxed it was clearly inappropriate for us to take action at this time,’ a company spokesperson said.
‘We have refunded the release fee on this occasion and offered our sincerest apologies to the family.’
The hearse was clamped outside Bristol Central Mosque (pictued) in the Easton area of the city