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OVER-ZEALOUS teenage council officials should not be given the power to seize motorists' Bentleys and Aston Martins if their owners try to sell them outside their homes, a Tory MP said today.
Jacob Rees-Mogg said plans to hand councils the power to impound cars which are being sold on the street were pernicious and went against the citizen's "ancient liberties" enshrined in the Magna Carta.
The MP for North East Somerset said in times of austerity very few people could afford Bentleys, but warned only magistrates should have the power to issue seizure notices.
Under the London Local Authorities Bill debated in the Commons, local councils would be given the power to seize cars sold on the street.
But Mr Rees-Mogg said a malevolent neighbour could post a picture of motorist's Bentley on the internet and list it for sale before ringing up the council to report an infringement.
The MP told the Commons: "Then around comes this authorised officer and practically drives off in your brand new Bentley. It would be very tiresome for the person who had bought a brand new Bentley, if anyone could afford such things in these times of austerity."
He added: "I think being a car salesman is a really honourable profession. Trading cars is the way to starting in business.
He continued: "It can often be a mistake to give power to relatively junior people who have excessive power in one particular area. If you take the authorised officer who is likely to do this, he is likely to be a relatively lowly official who suddenly has the power to go around and confiscate a car."
The Bill has been debated on several occasions by MPs, with Mr Rees-Mogg earlier failing in a bid to mandate all council official to wear bowler hats.
Tonight, he said the power to destroy seized cars should rest with the Communities Secretary and not the Mayor of London.
The Tory said he was standing up for the rights of the individual against petty, overbearing bureaucracy.
He added: "This rotten law, this dreadful, mean little Bill for some of the London boroughs, is an absolute attack on freedom that builds up the bureaucrat to be able to do all sorts of things without any protection for the individual.
"The bureaucrat can take your car, seize your goods, sell your goods, send you a notice with only 14 days to do anything about it. If that bureaucrat makes a bureaucratic mistake, he is Scot-free and it is assumed he got it right because he is such a wonderful and clever bureaucrat."
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