My £50k BMW was raced around airport car park at 50mph while I was on holidays – now I’m facing a massive bill
A FURIOUS holidaymaker returned home to find his £50,000 BMW had been raced around an airport car park at speeds up to 50mph.
Trucker Rob Butler handed over the keys to his prized motor to staff at Bristol Airport while he went on holiday to Greece.
But Rob, 41, was shocked when he checked the dashcam and found it had been “ragged” around the Silver Zone car park with the driver “power drifting” and pulling handbrake turns.
Footage shows an airport worker walking up to the top of the range BMW 340i before accelerating up to 47mph in the packed parking lot – which has a speed limit of just 15mph.
Rob from Bridgend, South Wales, said: “I thought I was doing the right thing by putting it into the Silver Zone Car Park at Bristol Airport – how wrong could I have been.
“I asked the attendant if I could keep my keys because I didn’t want anyone driving it, but he said that wasn’t an option.
“I reluctantly handed the keys over and he assured me that they would take proper care with what is my pride and joy.”
After a week in Zante, Rob and his partner, returned to Bristol and found that his car, which is capable of 155 mph, had been raced around the compound.
The shocking dashcam footage shows the employee who had taken his car and went on a joyride through the massed rows of other parked cars.
Rob added: “He was really dicing with death. You can hear the seat belt warning sign going off as he reached a top speed of 47mph and then did a power slide around the corner.
“At one point, he noticed that the dashcam was recording so he switched it off but the car has a built-in G-force sensor and it comes back on again if a certain lateral G-force is activated.
“That’s how I know he was power sliding around the corners and was using the handbrake to control the car. I couldn’t believe that he was driving in this way.
“It is not only disrespectful to me as the owner but think about all the other cars he could have damaged if he’d lost control.
“I’m so angry because I’d read similar horror stories in The Sun about Meet and Greet services at Bristol Airport that I wanted somewhere more secure.
“But I didn’t think that anyone could act so stupidly knowing that with the technology around today they are going to be monitored.”
Rob claims there is a flat spot on his rear tyre which was not there before he handed the car over.
And the special ceramic paint on the car has been damaged because someone wrote on a dust-covered panel ‘Nice car’.
He said: “That just added insult to injury because I’m now looking at a bill for £300 to have the ceramic paint reapplied.”
Rob has written to David Lees, the Chief Executive Officer at Bristol Airport to raise the matter.
The airport boss has promised Rob that he will order an internal investigation into the complaint.
A spokeswoman for Bristol Airport has apologised to Rob.
She said: “The level of service received on this occasion was completely unacceptable.
“We take feedback such as this seriously and once we were aware of the customer’s complaint, we investigated thoroughly with the third-party provider and the necessary remedial actions have been taken.
“ We are working with the business partner involved to ensure the normal high standards of customer service are maintained when customers leave their cars with us.
“Customers can be reassured this is an isolated incident and we are contacting the customer directly to resolve the issue.”