Uninsured vehicle, council and police not interested

[DS197]

There's been a bunch of roads that have now introduced parking permits around here although my road doesn't have one. There's been a car that has been dumped for 3 weeks now which has no insurance according to the MID database. Parking is already at a shortage since people working in the area now park their cars on the road that I live on. I phoned the council 2 days ago and they said someone would come around within 24 hours to have a look.

As you can imagine, nothing happened. Even told a local police unit and they took the reg down yesterday but no action taken. Apparently they didn't have the resources to check there and then, funny that. Is there anyone who I can call that actually cares and will do something about the car?

[anonymous-user]

Do you know which house it is associated with? If not ask the DVLA.

If the car were to become damaged in some way, the council may be more interested in its removal.

I assume it is taxed and MOT'd?

[DS197]

bmw535i said:

Do you know which house it is associated with? If not ask the DVLA.

If the car were to become damaged in some way, the council may be more interested in its removal.

I assume it is taxed and MOT'd?

It doesn't belong to any house on the road and i've never seen it around the area in general. That's exactly what I was thinking too. As there's a school on the road i'm sure broken glass on the pavement will get them to do something. It is indeed taxed and MOT'd. Not sure why they'd bother. Surely it must get pinged for no insurance when a DVLA van drives past.

[vonhosen]

DS197 said:

bmw535i said:

Do you know which house it is associated with? If not ask the DVLA.

If the car were to become damaged in some way, the council may be more interested in its removal.

I assume it is taxed and MOT'd?

It doesn't belong to any house on the road and i've never seen it around the area in general. That's exactly what I was thinking too. As there's a school on the road i'm sure broken glass on the pavement will get them to do something. It is indeed taxed and MOT'd. Not sure why they'd bother. Surely it must get pinged for no insurance when a DVLA van drives past.

Council won't remove it with it being taxed & MOT'd, Police are unlikely to remove it ether.
A smashed window won't make any difference to that.

[DS197]

That's the thing though, why not? It's clearly on the public highway without insurance. This sort of behaviour only encourages people to drive without insurance.

[vonhosen]

DS197 said:

That's the thing though, why not? It's clearly on the public highway without insurance. This sort of behaviour only encourages people to drive without insurance.

If someone is caught driving on the road then a seizure is more likely by the Police than if it's simply parked on the road with no insurance.

[funkyrobot]

bmw535i said:

Do you know which house it is associated with? If not ask the DVLA.

If the car were to become damaged in some way, the council may be more interested in its removal.

I assume it is taxed and MOT'd?

Remove the fuel filler cap. It then becomes a fire hazard.

[anonymous-user]

DS197 said:

That's the thing though, why not? It's clearly on the public highway without insurance. This sort of behaviour only encourages people to drive without insurance.

I would just keep ringing the council and police until something gets done.

Failing that, I wonder if they would do something if it was on fire.........

[eldar]

vonhosen said:

If someone is caught driving on the road then a seizure is more likely by the Police than if it's simply parked on the road with no insurance.

Why? Different offence, maybe?

[vonhosen]

bmw535i said:

DS197 said:

That's the thing though, why not? It's clearly on the public highway without insurance. This sort of behaviour only encourages people to drive without insurance.

I would just keep ringing the council and police until something gets done.

Failing that, I wonder if they would do something if it was on fire.........

The fire brigade will, but they won't, then you have an even more unsightly problem.

[anonymous-user]

The police power of removal doesn't apply if it's parked up like that.

The Council must remove abandoned vehicles. A vehicle can still be abandoned even if it's got a VEL and an MOT: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/abandoned-vehicles-cou...

[TwigtheWonderkid]

DS197 said:

That's the thing though, why not? It's clearly on the public highway without insurance. This sort of behaviour only encourages people to drive without insurance.

Just because it's not on MID doesn't mean it doesn't have insurance. The D in MID stands for database. And like all databases, it's not perfect. It certainly isn't the legal last word on whether a car is insured.

[Greendubber]

As above it may well be insured.

The police also need a valid reason to check insurance, you telling them that you think its uninsured and dont like it being in your road wouldnt be enough for me to do anything.

[DS197]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

Just because it's not on MID doesn't mean it doesn't have insurance. The D in MID stands for database. And like all databases, it's not perfect. It certainly isn't the legal last word on whether a car is insured.

Thank you Sherlock. I didn't imply it was, hence me asking a police car to check. But they're just as useless around here. Probably not worth the paperwork. In my experience, it's never taken days let alone weeks to update the database.

La Liga said:

The police power of removal doesn't apply if it's parked up like that.

The Council must remove abandoned vehicles. A vehicle can still be abandoned even if it's got a VEL and an MOT: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/abandoned-vehicles-cou...

That's the same site I had a look at before phoning the council as I didn't want to look like an idiot. Although the officer did tell me that he would inform the relevant department. I was just hoping the process may be sped up if a request came in from the police.

Greendubber said:

As above it may well be insured.

The police also need a valid reason to check insurance, you telling them that you think its uninsured and dont like it being in your road wouldnt be enough for me to do anything.

Thank god you don't work here then. Although you'd fit in just fine as they're all useless.

[Greendubber]

Officers have to follow rules when carrying out PNC checks so stop quimming because someone parked in your road.

[anonymous-user]

DS197 said:

TwigtheWonderkid said:

Just because it's not on MID doesn't mean it doesn't have insurance. The D in MID stands for database. And like all databases, it's not perfect. It certainly isn't the legal last word on whether a car is insured.

Thank you Sherlock. I didn't imply it was, hence me asking a police car to check. But they're just as useless around here. Probably not worth the paperwork. In my experience, it's never taken days let alone weeks to update the database.

La Liga said:

The police power of removal doesn't apply if it's parked up like that.

The Council must remove abandoned vehicles. A vehicle can still be abandoned even if it's got a VEL and an MOT: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/abandoned-vehicles-cou...

That's the same site I had a look at before phoning the council as I didn't want to look like an idiot. Although the officer did tell me that he would inform the relevant department. I was just hoping the process may be sped up if a request came in from the police.

Even if it's near-enough certainty (a belief is needed) that the car isn't insured, the police are unable to do anything in those circumstances. There's no policing purpose (and therefore legal justification) for them to access a database to confirm something which they know beforehand won't result in any action being taken.

It's the Council's responsibility if it's abandoned, and if you feel they're not doing what the law requires of them then ask to make a formal complaint.

Which Council is it?

[Greendubber]

La Liga said:

ven if it's near-enough certainty (a belief is needed) that the car isn't insured, the police are unable to do anything in those circumstances. There's no policing purpose (and therefore legal justification) for them to access a database to confirm something which they know beforehand won't result in any action being taken.

It's the Council's responsibility if it's abandoned, and if you feel they're not doing what the law requires of them then ask to make a formal complaint.

Maybe you'll be called useless for telling him about Police use of PNC too.....

[scottfraser100]

We've had a couple of cars round our way with no insurance, tax or MOT.

It takes about 2 months before anything gets resolved. Then it's only when the DVLA are doing a scheduled sweep of the area for untaxed cars......

With there was some way of moving things quicker but I've not found an answer yet. I've even gone down the route of reporting a vehicle as abandoned but as the owner was within the local area they decided the car in question was not abandoned despite having not moved in three months and having at least one flat tire.......

[TooMany2cvs]

DS197 said:

TwigtheWonderkid said:

Just because it's not on MID doesn't mean it doesn't have insurance. The D in MID stands for database. And like all databases, it's not perfect. It certainly isn't the legal last word on whether a car is insured.

Thank you Sherlock. I didn't imply it was, hence me asking a police car to check.

And what do you think the police will check against?

[Beetnik]

DS197 said:

...
As you can imagine, nothing happened. Even told a local police unit and they took the reg down yesterday but no action taken. Apparently they didn't have the resources to check there and then, funny that.

I'm guessing that they took the view that, whilst a criminal offence had likely been committed and the perp' had rung up to confess, they have no powers of arrest as all related offences are only punishable only by a fine. Too much trouble for 'em uh?

(offence of unlawfully obtaining data contrary to section 55 of the Data protection Act 1998)