Stolen Car Still on the Road - Where Do I Stand?
Discussion
At the end of last year a car I owned went walkies from my work car park. It was uninsured, SORN'd, not being driven.
Reported it as stolen, obviously heard nothing further.
I've just checked on ASKMID and it doesn't show up, but I checked the MOT history, and it has a fairly recent MOT.
Where do I stand here? I'd quite like it back!
Reported it as stolen, obviously heard nothing further.
I've just checked on ASKMID and it doesn't show up, but I checked the MOT history, and it has a fairly recent MOT.
Where do I stand here? I'd quite like it back!
veevee said:
At the end of last year a car I owned went walkies from my work car park. It was uninsured, SORN'd, not being driven.
Reported it as stolen, obviously heard nothing further.
I've just checked on ASKMID and it doesn't show up, but I checked the MOT history, and it has a fairly recent MOT.
Where do I stand here? I'd quite like it back!
What info is missing here? Reported it as stolen, obviously heard nothing further.
I've just checked on ASKMID and it doesn't show up, but I checked the MOT history, and it has a fairly recent MOT.
Where do I stand here? I'd quite like it back!
Was it a car that you planned on registering and using as your own? Assuming it wasn't / isn't currently registered in your name?
As has been said you can check the MOT testers location but last time i checked you needed some info on the V5C before that was possible.
If it has been nicked, then abandoned for ages and someone has applied for the reg doc then you're going to have to prove you own it. What are the timescales we're talking about here?
Edit -- apologies I just seen it went missing tail end of last year. Is that enough time for the DVLA to try and get in touch with the registered owner and if nothing back assign it to someone who has taken it as part of an "abandoned" car find?
Pay for a check on www.vcheck.co.uk too, it will tell you if it's been through any salvage auctions.
A friend of mine had a very distinctive car stolen a few years ago. It had been featured in a few magazines etc
It was stolen from a bodyshop where it was having some work done, so was taken with the keys. Allegedly it was stolen along with another customers car to ‘settle a debt’ owed by the bodyshop owner to some extremely unpleasant people.
The car then kept appearing, quite brazenly, at car shows, or meets/cruises. My friend kept seeing photos of it being ‘shown off’ at various places.
He got several letters over the next couple of years from the DVLA saying that someone was trying to register it in their name, and he objected each time, yet for years the car was being driven about on the roads, seemingly taxed, insured and MOT’d.
He spoke to the police on many, many occasions about it, even telling them where the car would likely be that day, and who currently had it, but they never took any action at all.
He never got the car back.
It was stolen from a bodyshop where it was having some work done, so was taken with the keys. Allegedly it was stolen along with another customers car to ‘settle a debt’ owed by the bodyshop owner to some extremely unpleasant people.
The car then kept appearing, quite brazenly, at car shows, or meets/cruises. My friend kept seeing photos of it being ‘shown off’ at various places.
He got several letters over the next couple of years from the DVLA saying that someone was trying to register it in their name, and he objected each time, yet for years the car was being driven about on the roads, seemingly taxed, insured and MOT’d.
He spoke to the police on many, many occasions about it, even telling them where the car would likely be that day, and who currently had it, but they never took any action at all.
He never got the car back.
Lord Marylebone said:
A friend of mine had a very distinctive car stolen a few years ago. It had been featured in a few magazines etc
It was stolen from a bodyshop where it was having some work done, so was taken with the keys. Allegedly it was stolen along with another customers car to ‘settle a debt’ owed by the bodyshop owner to some extremely unpleasant people.
The car then kept appearing, quite brazenly, at car shows, or meets/cruises. My friend kept seeing photos of it being ‘shown off’ at various places.
He got several letters over the next couple of years from the DVLA saying that someone was trying to register it in their name, and he objected each time, yet for years the car was being driven about on the roads, seemingly taxed, insured and MOT’d.
He spoke to the police on many, many occasions about it, even telling them where the car would likely be that day, and who currently had it, but they never took any action at all.
He never got the car back.
That's scandalous!It was stolen from a bodyshop where it was having some work done, so was taken with the keys. Allegedly it was stolen along with another customers car to ‘settle a debt’ owed by the bodyshop owner to some extremely unpleasant people.
The car then kept appearing, quite brazenly, at car shows, or meets/cruises. My friend kept seeing photos of it being ‘shown off’ at various places.
He got several letters over the next couple of years from the DVLA saying that someone was trying to register it in their name, and he objected each time, yet for years the car was being driven about on the roads, seemingly taxed, insured and MOT’d.
He spoke to the police on many, many occasions about it, even telling them where the car would likely be that day, and who currently had it, but they never took any action at all.
He never got the car back.
Pupbelly said:
Lord Marylebone said:
He got several letters over the next couple of years from the DVLA saying that someone was trying to register it in their name, and he objected each time.......
Really? How does this work? Why would the DVLA contact him??If the DVLA didn’t do this, then anyone could simply say the V5 had been lost for and simply apply for one in their name as the ‘new keeper’, effectively stealing your car from you by merely filling in a DVLA form.
veevee said:
At the end of last year a car I owned went walkies from my work car park. It was uninsured, SORN'd, not being driven.
Reported it as stolen, obviously heard nothing further.
I've just checked on ASKMID and it doesn't show up, but I checked the MOT history, and it has a fairly recent MOT.
Where do I stand here? I'd quite like it back!
how recent?Reported it as stolen, obviously heard nothing further.
I've just checked on ASKMID and it doesn't show up, but I checked the MOT history, and it has a fairly recent MOT.
Where do I stand here? I'd quite like it back!
are we talking an actual MOT or did it expire and get extended by 6 months automatically?
and have insurance paid out? if so its not your car its theirs or whoever they've sold it onto if it got recovered
Edited by andburg on Thursday 23 July 11:06
andburg said:
veevee said:
At the end of last year a car I owned went walkies from my work car park. It was uninsured, SORN'd, not being driven.
Reported it as stolen, obviously heard nothing further.
I've just checked on ASKMID and it doesn't show up, but I checked the MOT history, and it has a fairly recent MOT.
Where do I stand here? I'd quite like it back!
how recent?Reported it as stolen, obviously heard nothing further.
I've just checked on ASKMID and it doesn't show up, but I checked the MOT history, and it has a fairly recent MOT.
Where do I stand here? I'd quite like it back!
are we talking an actual MOT or did it expire and get extended by 6 months automatically?
andburg said:
how recent?
are we talking an actual MOT or did it expire and get extended by 6 months automatically?
and have insurance paid out? if so its not your car its theirs or whoever they've sold it onto if it got recovered
The OP states it was uninsured and SORN’d in his opening post.are we talking an actual MOT or did it expire and get extended by 6 months automatically?
and have insurance paid out? if so its not your car its theirs or whoever they've sold it onto if it got recovered
Edited by andburg on Thursday 23 July 11:06
He also said it had recently been MOT’d, so I think we can assumed it’s been MOT’d rather than the expiry date being extended.
Lord Marylebone said:
Pupbelly said:
Lord Marylebone said:
He got several letters over the next couple of years from the DVLA saying that someone was trying to register it in their name, and he objected each time.......
Really? How does this work? Why would the DVLA contact him??If the DVLA didn’t do this, then anyone could simply say the V5 had been lost for and simply apply for one in their name as the ‘new keeper’, effectively stealing your car from you by merely filling in a DVLA form.
veevee said:
At the end of last year a car I owned went walkies from my work car park. It was uninsured, SORN'd, not being driven.
Reported it as stolen, obviously heard nothing further.
I've just checked on ASKMID and it doesn't show up, but I checked the MOT history, and it has a fairly recent MOT.
Where do I stand here? I'd quite like it back!
Maybe the car presented for MoT isn't the same as the one stolen.Reported it as stolen, obviously heard nothing further.
I've just checked on ASKMID and it doesn't show up, but I checked the MOT history, and it has a fairly recent MOT.
Where do I stand here? I'd quite like it back!
Would the car have passed an MoT when stolen, or was serious work required?
Is the MoT 'clean' - is there something you might recognise as an advisory which make it certain it is the same vehicle?
I suppose if the thief is happy to steal cars, there is no need to suppose they will even bother getting a V5 for it.
Assuming you can easily prove it is yours - Do you still have the key? If you can locate it I think I would be driving it away.
Psycho Warren said:
If you can get an address, just go and take it back by force. Legally it is your property, you can take it back. Although you have to be careful not to commit criminal damage to gain access like if it was locked in a unit or similar.
That's what's odd about the other story - you could hire people to just go and repossess it.Sheepshanks said:
That's what's odd about the other story - you could hire people to just go and repossess it.
Easier said than done if you never know which garage or lock up, or industrial unit the car is being kept in at that particular time.Also, bailiffs and people who carry out repossessions won’t simply go and take a stolen car back from a gang of Manchester thugs. They will want numerous documents from the courts/police that shows they are legally entitled to go and repossess that particular item or vehicle, otherwise they won’t be interested.
The car in my story above was once seen parked at a car cruise by friends of the owner who were there.
The owner was called and sent photos of it, he phoned the Police, they didn’t turn up, and when the driver of the stolen car returned to it with his mate, they both threatened violence to the who people standing next to it who had called the police, and then calmly drove off without a care in the world, and the vehicle disappears back into the Manchester underworld of lock up garages.
As an aside, the main reason the Police were so useless was because when they went to the bodyshop where the car was originally stolen from, the bodyshop owner confessed that the car was taken as ‘some form of retaliation for money owed’ and as soon as the police heard that they straight away went down the “Sounds like a civil matter Sir. We won’t get involved with a dispute over money”.
The fact that the stolen car belonged to a customer didn’t seem to interest them. They just kept saying it sounded like a “civil matter”.
The Police are a
holes. Never there when you actually need them, but always there when you don’t need them.IJWS15 said:
Surely from the OPs perspective it is a civil matter.
His car was in the care of a garage, the garage lost it, the garage need to compensate him for the loss. If they are awkward then he gets his insurer involved.
How the garage lost it is immaterial
Just to clarify, the OP's car was stolen out of his car park, where it was parked up and SORN.His car was in the care of a garage, the garage lost it, the garage need to compensate him for the loss. If they are awkward then he gets his insurer involved.
How the garage lost it is immaterial
My post was regarding a friend who had his car stolen while it was parked at a bodyshop.
In both cases, the cars have been seen months later still driving around on the roads, seemingly having been MOT'd, Insured etc.
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