Hi guys, So my friend wrote his car off at a local drift track a while back (a wall got in his way). It's been sat in his flat building's (private) car park while he strips parts off it and sells them. All my tools were in the back. You know all those tools you've been building up over the years from every job you've ever done on your cars? Well that's what he had of mine, in one of those red 5 drawer toolboxes. Along with both sets of my axle stands, my big 3 tone arcan jack and loads of other bits and bobs. Yesterday, he came home and the car was gone. He managed to get hold of cctv, and got the number plate of the recovery who picked it up. The police called him last night but apparently the car was at his work still and he wasn't, so couldn't do anything about it until today. The police have spoken to him again today and said the guy says it's been scrapped already! Allegedly with all the stuff in it (bullshit). What do we do about this????? These tools probably aren't worth a huge amount in their current state, but for me to replace them is going to cost me many hundreds of pounds! I'm not sure what question to ask tbh, I'm just gutted all my stuff is gone! What sort of recourse might we have against something like this? Surely this is just classed as theft?? I've googled what I think are relevant terms but all the cases I can find seem to be where garages who are supposed to have done work on the car have scrapped it without consent. This has literally been taken from his car park and scrapped!! SO MAD!
you missed out the bit where the police said what they were going to do about it? thats there job to tell you as they know about the law, not us really! Unless you are missing out large bits of the story then yes that is blatant theft and completely illegal. You cant scrap a car without a logbook legally either
Ah, so the police are going round my friends house after he finishes work to "open an official investigation". But that's all I've heard. He did ask what's going to happen but apparently the person on the phone just said he'd have to speak to the officers about it tonight. Yeah I guess you're right about them being the obvious people to tell us what they're going to do, guess I just don't have much faith in the law sorting it out really lol. It had MOT not long ago, I'm assuming it had tax. It didn't have any insurance because he switched it over to his new car after this one got written off.
Just googled that, and it seems you can scrap a car legally without the logbook, but you need photo id of the owner and proof of address. Which he doesn't have. Obviously. Basically, he’s a fucking cunt who’s done everything wrong and needs to rot in hell after he replaces all my tools with new snap on stuff.
Dafuq... Something seems hugely wrong with this! I hope the scrapper gets fucked by the long dick of the law all too soon!
So was the car parked on private land, or on the road. Have you check where it was parked is definitely private land?? Have you contacted the recovery company who lifted the vehicle, someone might have fobbed them off pretending it was their car to get it lifted.
The police will probably see it as TWOC, they may investigate or they may not bother. If you have the name of the company that took the vehicle you could probably take them to civil court tho.
It was parked in a car park for his flat building. I'm assuming that means it's private land? They have numbered spaces and it's attached to the same land the flat building is on. Would it make a difference if it was public? Surely it's outright theft whichever you look at it, unless you're talking about trespassing charges too? We've not contacted the recovery company as we don't know who the recovery company is yet. The van just had "24 hour recovery" written on it and no phone number or company name as far as I'm aware. The police have done all the liaising with both sides so far. I've asked my friend if he knows who the recovery company is. With regards to this bit: "The police will probably see it as TWOC, they may investigate or they may not bother." Why would they not investigate it further? Are there certain circumstances where they just don't bother??
The only thing that I can think of, is that it was removed because it wasnt road legal and was on the road. I know your saying it was in a parking space but you gotta confirm that land is indeed private. Also check the legal status of the car prior to, so you know exactly if it was taxed etc as if it wasnt.. then im sure there allowed to just take the car. They cant just scrap it thought, thats a different matter.
I work for a breakers yard and deal with incoming cars all the time, all a person needs when scrapping a car is photo id (driving licence or passport) it also doesnt have to be the registered keeper. A logbook isnt needed as we can issue a "cod" (cert of destruction) using the reg or vin. Your best bet is to find out what recovery company took the car and what yard its ended up in and check their paperwork to find the person who scrapped it
I've just spoken to my friend and the car was SORN. I've googled how to find out if if land/a carpark is private property but everything is just about people's parking tickets that they don't want to pay. Might home insurance cover my tools? I'm going to call them at lunch.
Ah I see, so anyone could scrap it as long as they give their own id and address!? That's fucking bullshit!!?? Does that mean I could go round picking up people's cars off the street and scrapping them????
There is another answer of course, that because it wasnt insured and was considered as being on the road the Police have seized it - they should have contacted you if this is the case but you never know. If thats is the case then you can probably wave goodbye to the car and the tools
Well theres the reason the car was probably removed. I would doubt the land it was on was private though.. along with no Insurance... just my thoughts. https://www.gov.uk/report-untaxed-vehicle Someone might of done that ^
don't need proof or address, all you need is a photo driving licence or passport. We've picked up cars off people with the old style paper licence still and they've just used their neighbours id or even their kids etc. its better than it used to be though at least now there's a paper trail to follow.
You can find out exactly who owns what land by using the Land Registry, several ways to search. Usually a couple of quid if you want to buy a copy of the deeds and stuff - which might be a good idea, as it might include info on the parking area. Thats my thinking, it's been seized by the police or DVLA, but one hand isn't talking to the other so other police officers can't figure out it's been taken by their own lot Guess it just depends on your local force, but round our way they won't go out of their way to investigate things like that. You usually only get your car back when it's been dumped and someones called it in.
Gutted for you, but if you freind had been dismantling it for weeks In a public car park I can easily imagine it looking like it is bringing the area down and a neightbough calling a collect scrap for free company to get rid of it. Either that or the scrap dealer just thought they would steal it and pocket the £150 weighing it in. This is more likely, when I ran a dismantlers we had 2 shells stolen that were only left out over night. If you have the scrap dealers contact details and the theft is proven I would have thought you could sue them through the small claims court for the value of your tools. But I am no legal expert.
And just to lay the boot in some more, if you can get onto it, its considered public. Only "private" if its behind locked gates or similar
