Claiming back police recovery costs

[anonymous-user]

[redacted]

[Psycho Warren]

Good luck with that.

They will stick to the line that the position was dangerous.

[Countdown]

What would have happened if you said "I'm not paying"?

[Countdown]

anonymous said:

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is there any hard shoulder on a slip road? You say it was off the carriageway but I'm just trying to picture where it would be parked on the sliproad where there was little or no risk of somebody hitting it.

[Countdown]

anonymous said:

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Fair enough - for some reason I thought they wanted cash up front.

[Countdown]

anonymous said:

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To be fair I think that's their decision to make and had anything gone wrong they would have been held accountable. Given that they patrol motorways all day long they are probably better judges of what is and isn't dangerous

[Psycho Warren]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

You're not an expert police driver so are not qualified to make that decision.

The police are fully authorised to get a recovery organised like they did. They don't know if your recovery agent is coming soon or is held up. The police contracted recovery firms have quite strict contracts on response time etc.

Sure it may have been less dangerous on the slip road but still dangerous as people could be flooring it down the slip road and paying more attention to moving traffic for the purposes of merging rather than your stationary car.

[BertBert]

anonymous said:

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I think you can consider away, but when I looked into the same situation a few years back, they did have statutory powers to support this. Like me then I don't think you have any form of redress. Annoying I know.

ETA it may be to do with S99 RTA. But that's just a quick google, so it may not
Bert

Edited by BertBert on Wednesday 10th March 17:22

[Glosphil]

Do the police receive a 'fee' for passing on work to their preferred (contracted?) recovery company? If so it would certainly be an incentive for the police to insist on 'their' recovery company being used.

[Greendubber]

Any street view of the location so we can have an idea of what it was like?

[Nibbles_bits]

The decision on whether the vehicle is in a dangerous position isn't for the layman to make.

Once the Police have encountered the 'dangerously' positioned vehicle, they are duty bound to deal with the situation a)what if someone did collide with it? b)it saves having to send Officers back out if calls are received.

(If it wasn't in a dangerous position, they would have left it, and would notify the control room if further calls were made - "Is that a blue fiat Punto on the slip road?, Because I passed that and it's not in a dangerous position").

Most recovery agents have an agreed timeframe to attend Police calls, usually 30mins.

[Nibbles_bits]

Glosphil said:

Do the police receive a 'fee' for passing on work to their preferred (contracted?) recovery company? If so it would certainly be an incentive for the police to insist on 'their' recovery company being used.

No. They don't.
All the fees are retained by the recovery agent to cover the cost of removal and storage.

The reason for the Police wanting to use their contracted recovery agent is attendance time.
In my force it's a 30mins ETA.

[LosingGrip]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Have you paid yet?

For us we can get a vehicle recovered under police powers if it’s in a dangerous position. I will always get it recovered under police powers if it’s on a duel carriageway.

When you say off the carriageway is that completely off?

I also wouldn’t wait 60 minutes on a fast road (40mph plus is a fast road for my force). It’s dangerous and also ties you up. Plus no guarantee that your recovery agent will be on time.

I’d contact the force again and ask for the vehicle recovery department.

Explain that you had recovery on the way (can you get an email to confirm this or something) and that the officers decided to recover it themselves.

If that doesn’t work raise a complaint with them.

[LosingGrip]

anonymous said:

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Do what I said above.

https://www.hampshire.police.uk/advice/advice-and-...

The police recovery company will have a contract to attend with a certain timeframe which is why it makes sense (to me) that they recovered it.

[KungFuPanda]

Judging by that location, at least she of the vehicle would have been positioned on the carriageway hence causing an obstruction.

If you're still adamant that you shouldn't be paying the £300, issue a civil case against the Police in the small claims court. If it get's disputed, both parties evidence will be considered by a District Judge.

[s p a c e m a n]

No idea why you think that's not a dangerous position

[Peter911]

if you had already arranged your own recovery why was it over 20 minutes after the police one?

surely they would've been there first and taken the vehicle away, Sorted.

[colin_p]

Not so long ago, Plod would have towed you a short distance out of danger themselves.

OP, I'm with you and would be very angry about this, especially in light of the conversation you overheard.

[paintman]

anonymous said:

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If the pic shows the exact position I'm not surprised they wanted it gone ASAP.
The extra 20 minutes it would have taken your breakdown to arrive is long time to be sat there.

[Knock_knock]

Assume the traffic unit waited with you, in "fend off" until recovery arrived?

That location on the A31 would certainly be supportable as being dangerous, as there's no hard shoulder, or lighting, or electronic warning signs, and is a 70mph limit.