Police not interested in "failure to stop after accident"

[Richie Slow]

As I am unaware of the current procedures I'm hoping that somebody might give me a few pointers. The basic facts are these:

On Saturday I returned to my vehicle in a public car park to find the drivers door completely caved in. The offending vehicle's driver did not stop to leave details. Fortunately, several members of the public witnessed the event and a traffic warden was also present and he photographed the offending vehicle embedded into the side of mine. Naturally, I assumed that failure to stop (Road Traffic Act, I believe) was serious enough to report to the nearest Police station. I was amazed to be told that it's not something the Police are interested in pursuing despite witnesses and photographic evidence.

I am estimating the claim to be in excess of £2000, so it's not a trivial matter. I don't want to lose my excess or no claims as I have been with my insurer for 25 years and never claimed ( a small bit of pride there ). I also don't want the bugger to get away with it.

The insurance company want me to obtain an incident reference from the Police. How do I get the Police to file a report if the person on the front desk refuses to do so?

Thanks.

Edited by Richie Slow on Wednesday 30th March 09:48

[vonhosen]

http://www.hampshire.police.uk/internet/advice-and...

Your NCB etc will not be tied to Police involvement or not.

[Richie Slow]

vonhosen said:

http://www.hampshire.police.uk/internet/advice-and...

Your NCB etc will not be tied to Police involvement or not.

I know. I just don't want them getting away with it.

[vonhosen]

Richie Slow said:

vonhosen said:

http://www.hampshire.police.uk/internet/advice-and...

Your NCB etc will not be tied to Police involvement or not.

I know. I just don't want them getting away with it.

You're wasting your time investing emotion in that because you have little or no control over it.
Follow the advice on the link (the action so far by the Police has been contrary to their own published advice & complain if you wish about that).
Even if they do investigate it you can't control how they dispose of it.
If his/her insurance pay out they haven't got away with it.

[Richie Slow]

vonhosen said:

Richie Slow said:

vonhosen said:

http://www.hampshire.police.uk/internet/advice-and...

Your NCB etc will not be tied to Police involvement or not.

I know. I just don't want them getting away with it.

You're wasting your time investing emotion in that because you have little or no control over it.
Follow the advice on the link (the action so far by the Police has been contrary to their own published advice & complain if you wish about that).
Even if they do investigate it you can't control how they dispose of it.
If his/her insurance pay out they haven't got away with it.

Yes, it's the 'not following their own guidelines' that grates with me.

And the insurance company wants it recorded with plod.

PS. Complain to who?

[vonhosen]

Richie Slow said:

vonhosen said:

Richie Slow said:

vonhosen said:

http://www.hampshire.police.uk/internet/advice-and...

Your NCB etc will not be tied to Police involvement or not.

I know. I just don't want them getting away with it.

You're wasting your time investing emotion in that because you have little or no control over it.
Follow the advice on the link (the action so far by the Police has been contrary to their own published advice & complain if you wish about that).
Even if they do investigate it you can't control how they dispose of it.
If his/her insurance pay out they haven't got away with it.

Yes, it's the 'not following their own guidelines' that grates with me.

And the insurance company wants it recorded with plod.

PS. Complain to who?

To a supervisor at a Police station. Phone the non emergency number & ask to speak to one.

[Grunt Futtock]

I had something similar happen to me about 10 years ago except I was in my parked car at the time, the woman who hit me drove off but I pursued her and she pulled over claiming she hadn't noticed she had left a great dent in my bumper. I exchanged details and then went to the Police station to report it just in case and was told I would have been better off going straight to them and they would have pursued her for fail to stop which was more serious and would have got my insurance sorted without me having to get involved.

Police budgets and priorities change over 10 years I guess.

[Monty Python]

Hand it over to your insurance company, along with all the evidence, let them pursue them. After all, that's what you pay them for.

[Durzel]

Grunt Futtock said:

Police budgets and priorities change over 10 years I guess.

And then some.

[Four Litre]

Monty Python said:

Hand it over to your insurance company, along with all the evidence, let them pursue them. After all, that's what you pay them for.

NEVER EVER DO THIS!

Without doing your homework first with the Police there will be only one looser and that will be you.

Insurance will only ever take the easiest and quickest path. Which will either end up with you getting your car repaired on your insurance, them taking excess, ramping up next premium and then the other party arguing and your insurer giving up as its costing them more to go further.

Get report from poilce - ref number and all evidence together. Take copies of everything as police/insurers will loose it as quickly as possible.

Then never take no for answer. Both police and insurers are inept and one is there to make arrests, the other to make money. Neither to serve you.

[donkmeister]

When you do report it to the police, don't let them fob you off.
Same thing happened to me, the police "lost" the paperwork and didn't send out forms to my neighbours (I.e. witnesses). By the time they admitted to losing the paperwork they said the deadline to report it had passed (even though I had already reported it!). My insurance company found the car that hit me had no insurance, police still not interested. Ended up costing me about £1000 in excess and lost NCB (I was young).
Older and wiser, if the same happened now I wouldn't let it lie.

[Collectingbrass]

The insurance co will want the crime reference number as a step towards reducing the risk of a claim arising from an alleged "fail to stop" incident not being actually self inflicted, in the same way they ask for crime reference numbers for "stolen phone" claims. NB I'm not doubting the OP.

No doubt the plod don't want to for what ever reason, again perhaps to discourage fraudulent claims rather than poor service on behalf of the desk operator, but as Von says, if you really want the reference number you'll need to try harder & through the complaint route if necessary. You shouldn't have to, but then the insurance cos shouldn't have to resort to defending themselves against fraudulent claims either but the world is how it is.

[Richie Slow]

At the second attempt I got the correct response. I now have a crime reference number and the Police have photos and witness evidence with a view to following it up properly.

And the lazy woman from the front desk will be undergoing some re-training. I was amazed how much effort she devoted to doing nothing

Thanks for your replies everybody. Persistence did win the day.

[jogger1976]

Sorry to hear about your experience OP. I can't say I'm surprised though, as the Police just don't have the time and resources to be doing this kind of thing these days.

It's pretty crap, but it's reality I'm afraid and it'll only get worse if The Witch and Call Me Dave get their wicked way and REALLY slash Police budgets.

[richs2891]

jogger1976 said:

Sorry to hear about your experience OP. I can't say I'm surprised though, as the Police just don't have the time and resources to be doing this kind of thing these days.

It's pretty crap, but it's reality I'm afraid and it'll only get worse if The Witch and Call Me Dave get their wicked way and REALLY slash Police budgets.

The problem is that no one was speeding, plenty of money and resources poured into that.

[hora]

I wouldn't roll over, I'd file a complaint. In my view it's a crime you are going to be out of pocket. It was an accident and someone failed to stop or exchange details.

Another angle- you have the cars reg? Can you find their insurer? At the very least that driver will have premiums go up- worse still if they claimed on their insurance that they nudged a wall and its a false fraudulent claim..

[ging84]

Four Litre said:

NEVER EVER DO THIS!

Without doing your homework first with the Police there will be only one looser and that will be you.

Insurance will only ever take the easiest and quickest path. Which will either end up with you getting your car repaired on your insurance, them taking excess, ramping up next premium and then the other party arguing and your insurer giving up as its costing them more to go further.

Get report from poilce - ref number and all evidence together. Take copies of everything as police/insurers will loose it as quickly as possible.

Then never take no for answer. Both police and insurers are inept and one is there to make arrests, the other to make money. Neither to serve you.

That's the exact opposite of what happens

Insurers hand it over to an accident management company, who will then take the slowest and most difficult path possible, because all thier admin gets added to the claim

[MrBarry123]

Richie Slow said:

At the second attempt I got the correct response. I now have a crime reference number and the Police have photos and witness evidence with a view to following it up properly.

And the lazy woman from the front desk will be undergoing some re-training. I was amazed how much effort she devoted to doing nothing

Thanks for your replies everybody. Persistence did win the day.

I was in the same position as you OP (in 2013) and reported it as you have done. I also received confirmation that they would "investigate what had happened". I never heard anything further on the matter and I'd be surprised if you do either.

It's likely the tt who damaged your car will have their premium increase significantly as a result though so I suppose that's some kind of consolation!

[Richie Slow]

MrBarry123 said:

I was in the same position as you OP (in 2013) and reported it as you have done. I also received confirmation that they would "investigate what had happened". I never heard anything further on the matter and I'd be surprised if you do either.

It's likely the tt who damaged your car will have their premium increase significantly as a result though so I suppose that's some kind of consolation!

I have photographs of the offending vehicle embedded in the side of mine and an eyewitness who saw the whole episode. It's not like the Police need to work very hard investigating this one, but they'll probably find it easier to do nothing. As has been intimated above , many victimless crimes command a 'police costs' payback upon prosecution. That's their focus, or so it seems.

PS. As I have his registration number, insurance details and shortly his address too I doubt he will be 'getting away with it'.

[mikeveal]

vonhosen said:

http://www.hampshire.police.uk/internet/advice-and...

Your NCB etc will not be tied to Police involvement or not.

Hampshire Police take no action on failure to stop unless there was an injury to the person or the driver did stop and subsequently scarpered.