TWO disabled pensioners are celebrating after winning their battles with a car-clamping firm.

Each had been forced to hand over a week's income to release their cars after they claimed they had been unfairly clamped.

Tony Kimber and John Chivers contacted the Daily Echo after being forced to pay £95 each when they forgot to display their disabled parking permits in the windscreen of their vehicles.

Both men had left their cars near their local post office in the St John's Centre at Hedge End when the clampers pounced.

The Daily Echo took up their plight with the private firm Security International Group based in Southampton - and the next day they offered to refund the money as a goodwill gesture.

Mr Kimber, 69, from Laburnum Road, Hedge End, has a disabled permit because he had a hip replacement and a triple heart bypass operation two years ago.

It took the retired sailor less than five minutes to collect his £94 pension on April 22 and in that time his car was clamped.

He said: "I found the warden who had clamped it and explained to him that I was entitled to park there - and could show him the permit - but he said that didn't matter.

"I had to pay out all the money I had just got from my pension, leaving me with nothing to live off for the rest of the week."

"I'm delighted the company have agreed to give back my money as I simply couldn't afford to lose it."

Mr Chivers, 61, from Cheltenham Gardens, Hedge End, made the same trip to collect benefits with his 83-year-old disabled mother Joan.

Both of their permits were in the car but not on display so they too were forced to pay the £95 release fee. That left them with only £60 to live on for a week.

Mr Chivers said: "It means a huge deal to be promised the money back. We really couldn't afford to hand it over in the first place, but we had to because the car's a lifeline for us."

Clive Deacon, managing director of Security Group International, said: "In each case, at the particular time these vehicles were wheel-clamped, the people concerned had forgotten to display their badges.

"It is not company policy to clamp disabled drivers who are displaying a disabled badge and, in all cases, a disabled badge was not displayed.

"However, as a gesture of goodwill, I am prepared to refund these clamping fees."