mechanic takes my car for a joy ride with his mates

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  • Robisere
    Robisere Posts: 3,237
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    If this actually true, and the OP has the video proof, it is evidence. Showing it here on an open forum, will destroy any further action he may consider against the technician.

    I can well believe that something like this can happen. During my own time in the trade, we employed several "mistakes" from first setting up business, until finding the right people. One would have sent out a Volvo without certain suspension parts, had I not checked his work. Another left steering in a dangerous condition, checked and corrected again by me.

    But the worst was a guy who kept spare keys to a car awaiting work in the compund, went clubbing in it, got drunk and wrapped it around several cars, then street furniture.

    There may actually be a case for this Land Rover technician, if he is not reported to the law. He could legally be sacked for this incident, but if not reported, he should have been given two Verbal Warnings and a Written, before this happened. (If it happened) Perhaps he has received previous Warnings, which would explain the speed of his dismissal.
    I think this job really needs
    a much bigger hammer.
  • bigadaj
    bigadaj Posts: 11,531
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    If proven then this would come under gross misconduct and result in summary dismissal.

    The problem seems to be that the evidence and process doesn't seem to have been followed in this instance, if indeed it is true and accurate.
  • shaun_from_Africa
    shaun_from_Africa Posts: 12,858
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    edited 17 June 2017 at 6:03PM
    It's possible that the garage concerned didn't actually need the dashcam footage that the OP has.

    Maybe the garage has their own CCTV system and after receiving the complaint from the OP, decided to check this.
    If they had seen the mechanic concerned taking the vehicle out of their premises when they closed and not bringing it back until the next morning and this was prohibited by the company, this alone might have given them sufficient grounds to sack the employee.

    It might also be the case that the employee concerned had a history of doing this and this report was the final straw for the garage owners.
  • Noree
    Noree Posts: 166
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    Only covering the cost of the work is not sufficient. The tech has taken your car out of work hours and for a 'joy ride'. I'd be much inclined to go further on the matter.

    One thing that really annoys me is when somebody disrespects your hard-earned property.
  • mikeyranson
    mikeyranson Posts: 86
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    Thanks all.
    The tech may have admitted his crime so immediate sacking is then justified.
    I am satisfied with the 3 grand refund. It's the reporting to the ice I'm on the fence about.
    I would use the garage again as this incident was outside their control but you do learn from experience so a learning curve to them.
    This could be happening to a lot of other cars in the same garage so who knows what is going on. They all maybe at it.
  • ratrace
    ratrace Posts: 1,009
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    Thanks all.
    The tech may have admitted his crime so immediate sacking is then justified.
    I am satisfied with the 3 grand refund. It's the reporting to the ice I'm on the fence about.
    I would use the garage again as this incident was outside their control but you do learn from experience so a learning curve to them.
    This could be happening to a lot of other cars in the same garage so who knows what is going on. They all maybe at it.

    Or maybe not, this may have only been one bad apple
    People are caught up in an egotistic artificial rat race to display a false image to society. We want the biggest house, fanciest car, and we don't mind paying the sky high mortgage to put up that show. We sacrifice our biggest assets our health and time, We feel happy when we see people look up to us and see how successful we are”

    Rat Race
  • George_Michael
    George_Michael Posts: 4,251
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    If it was me, I wouldn't hesitate about reporting it to the police.

    As the incident only happened a few days ago, there may well be speeding offences or other motoring related offences in the pipeline.
    If one or more of these did arrive in the next week or so, you would be able to dispute them but doing so might well be easier if you could provide evidence that you had already reported that your vehicle was being used without your permission at the time.

    After all, if the mechanic concerned wasn't worried about the legality of driving your car, I doubt if they would have been too worried about how they drove it, especially if they were showing off to their mates.
  • neilmcl
    neilmcl Posts: 19,460
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    Robisere wrote: »
    If this actually true, and the OP has the video proof, it is evidence. Showing it here on an open forum, will destroy any further action he may consider against the technician.
    Evidence doesn't stop being evidence just because it's shown in public.
  • pelo_2
    pelo_2 Posts: 43 Forumite
    If it was me, I wouldn't hesitate about reporting it to the police.

    As the incident only happened a few days ago, there may well be speeding offences or other motoring related offences in the pipeline.
    If one or more of these did arrive in the next week or so, you would be able to dispute them but doing so might well be easier if you could provide evidence that you had already reported that your vehicle was being used without your permission at the time.

    After all, if the mechanic concerned wasn't worried about the legality of driving your car, I doubt if they would have been too worried about how they drove it, especially if they were showing off to their mates.


    Yeah,that's what I was trying to say. The report is already there, it definitely can't hurt and as for wasting police time, it probably takes 10 mins for them to make a note.
  • dacouch
    dacouch Posts: 21,637
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    Just to add that I would doubt that the mechanic / technician was actually insured for the majority or even any of their use of the vehicle.

    This is because all MT policies are intentionally worded to prevent the employees from using the MT Insurance to cover the employees vehicles and also to prevent employees from using the MT's own vehicles or vehicles in their custody / control for private use.

    This is done by the policy covering either any employee or specific named drivers for driving vehilces for the MT's business use only. Business use would be test drives, collecting parts from the wholesaler and deliver / collection of the vehicle to a customer etc. There is no cover under the policy for private use by employees.

    It is a known dodge for employees to take a customers vehicle home overnight on an "Extended test drive" but for this dodge to work it really would be for the drive to their house and the return in the morning. Taking the vehicle on a night out in Brixton would be very difficult to persuade the Insurer or a traffic officer that it was a test drive. Note the MT Insurers and Traffic Officers are very on the ball when they discover such incidences and it's very difficult to pull the wool over their eyes.

    There are exceptions to this rule for the directors of the business and their family members who will also be permitted to use vehicles for their private use. This may also be extended to very senior members of staff eg to the garage manager to enable him to have a company car.

    So I would be surprised if a junior member of staff was actually covered to drive the vehicle.

    In addition to the above, the garage's Insurance is very very likely to require that all vehicles on the premises have their keys locked in a secure key cabinet over night. This is especially so with a Land Rover specialist because such vehicles are a very high theft risk and the key cabinet and it's location would have been specified by the Insurer.

    Most businesses whose employees have access to various vehicles will also require that the vehicle is signed out and signed back in so that there is a written record of who was driving which vehicle and when. This enables the employer to be able to nominate the correct driver for motoring convictions and accidents etc etc

    I suspect if the senior employee who looked into the complaint discovered the mechanic did not sign the vehicle in / out and that the keys were not correctly put into the key cabinet could have resulted in an instant dismissall. If it's the dealership I suspect it is then they will have a sophisticated CCTV system the manager could have checked all of this on
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