Man buys his old stolen car…
Discussion
Story below and link, surely at this point you have to just facepalm…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn7x1e0648zo
A man who bought a £20,000 car to replace the one he had stolen has discovered he has accidentally bought back his own stolen car.
Ewan Valentine, 36, from Solihull, woke up on 28 February to find his car, a black Honda Civic, had disappeared from his drive overnight.
After informing police and his insurers, he started looking for a replacement 2016 Type-R model and found one that looked "identical" about 70 miles away.
But after he bought it, he noticed similar items in the vehicle. It was then Mr Valentine realised he had bought his stolen car - he also found his previous addresses in the car's sat-nav.
He told the BBC he was "gutted" when his car was stolen, and he was determined to replace it with the same model.
"It was sort of a mid-life crisis car, and you don't get many of those, so I was pretty determined to get it replaced before one day I have to get a sort of family car," he said.
"I spotted one that was identical, same colour, same year, same slightly obnoxious exhaust system on it as well," he explained. "It fit the bill precisely."
Mr Valentine paid £20,000 for the replacement car at a reputable garage, but upon driving it home, he started to get suspicious.
"I started noticing things in the car were a little bit odd, like a single tent peg and some Christmas tree pines and some, like, Mars bar wrappers and things that they hadn't cleaned out," he said.
"All very similar to what you could have found in my stolen car."
Despite the car having a new number plate and a lower mileage, Mr Valentine's suspicions were confirmed when he later discovered his and his parents addresses in the history of the built-in navigation system.
"I nearly crashed, to be honest, because I was in shock... My hands were shaking; my heart was pounding," he said.
"A part of me felt sort of triumphant for a moment until I realised, actually, no, this isn't some heroic moment; you didn't go and get your car back; you've actually done something a bit stupid."
He took the vehicle to a Honda garage in Solihull and informed the police, who he said could not believe he had "bought his own car" and suspected it was stolen to order by unidentified thieves.
vaud said:
"You could see signs where they'd tampered with things and removed VIN numbers and replaced other ones and things."
So how did the VIN match the paperwork?
Reputable dealer So how did the VIN match the paperwork?
A vin sticker over the ground off original stamped vin, another vin slid over the top of the windscreen vin and you could probably pass a quick inspection. Not so sure the buyer did much inspecting though if he didn’t spot things like his own tent pegs in the boot.
I’d like to know how the dealer sourced it. Webuyanycar type setup, auction, Facebook?
rallycross said:
Hopefully he gets to keep his car and gets his money back it’s the garage who will lose out meanwhile the scrotes who stole it will still be out there steeling and cloning more.
He should get his money back and the his insurer, who paid out on the car, get to decide what happens with it. I suppose he may be able to buy it off them - if he wants to, probably not a great idea as it’s been messed around with.
119 said:
Gotta be some kind of stupid if you didnt realise.
Surely you'd have noticed when looking it over with the bits left in the car?People who nicked it did all the cloning work but left everything inside exactly how it was?
"Garage" never bothered doing even the slightest checks or cleaning it?
Didn't check the MOT, which is showing only 2x MOT's (both in 2025!) for a 2016 car?
But most importantly....if you had a car stolen, then found an indentical age/spec one for sale in the same area which also - as he admitted - had the same "obnoxious" exhaust fitted, wouldn't you think "That's a bit of a coincidence" and do some checks? While CTR's aren't hen's teeth rare, it's still not a common car.
None of this story makes any sense to me.
vaud said:
"You could see signs where they'd tampered with things and removed VIN numbers and replaced other ones and things."
So how did the VIN match the paperwork?
This is interesting...So how did the VIN match the paperwork?
You can fake the paperwork but then the dealer would get confirmation from DVLA when they send in the paperwork. The thieves would have had to clone the car which is not written off and possibly sell privately or at an auction to a dealer so there is no paper trail to the previous owner.
Insurance pay out takes a while and presumably the owner used the payout to buy his new car. By which time you would have thought the paperwork had caught up with DVLA. Maybe the thieves waited a couple of months then sold it to the dealer (?)
It would be interesting to get more detail as to how this whole thing was possible. Well I guess for a start, the owner didn't inspect the vehicle before purchasing and driving away otherwise he would have noticed his litter in the car.
Matty_ said:
119 said:
Gotta be some kind of stupid if you didnt realise.
Surely you'd have noticed when looking it over with the bits left in the car?People who nicked it did all the cloning work but left everything inside exactly how it was?
"Garage" never bothered doing even the slightest checks or cleaning it?
Didn't check the MOT, which is showing only 2x MOT's (both in 2025!) for a 2016 car?
But most importantly....if you had a car stolen, then found an indentical age/spec one for sale in the same area which also - as he admitted - had the same "obnoxious" exhaust fitted, wouldn't you think "That's a bit of a coincidence" and do some checks? While CTR's aren't hen's teeth rare, it's still not a common car.
None of this story makes any sense to me.
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