Haart sorry for 'completely unacceptable' incident with branded car

Haart has apologised over what it calls the “completely unacceptable” parking of one of its cars which blocked in a care worker’s vehicle.

The Plymouth Evening Herald reports that care worker Jeri Coombes left the home of a client on August 30 when she discovered a car with Haart branding had blocked her in.

Photographs in the newspaper show how the two vehciles were almost touching, leaving it impossible for Coombes to move her car.

Coombes is quoted as saying that she telephoned the Plymouth Haart office and offered to give the registration number of the vehicle blocking her.

"The man on the phone told me he didn't know who was driving the car. I told him I could give him the registration, but he said he still couldn't help. I phoned work to cancel my next appointment because I wasn't going to be there in time" she said.

Coombes later went on to contact the police on 101.

"I gave the police the registration and they said they would talk to the owner of the car.  A man came out of a house nearby and told me it wasn't his car it was his girlfriend's.  He pulled out and then sat there waiting for me to move."

A statement from Haart, published in the Evening Herald, said the company apologised profusely for the incident.

"It is completely unacceptable and we are very sorry for the inconvenience caused to Ms Coombes. However, there were extenuating circumstances. Unfortunately, our staff member's daughter was poorly and needed collecting urgently from home for medical care, so our employee stopped in the nearest available space and returned as soon as she could.” 

The statement continued: "Her partner moved the car within 20 minutes of our head office being contacted. We would to like to thank Ms Coombes for bringing it to our attention.  Our staff are aware that, when driving a branded car, they should be mindful of our company's reputation. We would like to stress this was not an every-day situation."