hit and run by foreign vehicle

skm1968

The back of my car was hit by a left hand drive white transit van with foreign no. plates. The driver reversed the van and drove off. I managed to get his reg no. and reported the accident to the police. The van is not registered in the UK. I seems any driver from any European country can enter the UK and not have to register, tax or insure their vehicle for 12 months and even then who follows up the registration takes place? The outcome is I have severe whiplash and will have to claim my own insurance, pay the excess (£475) and will lose 2 years no claims bonus. It's the first and hopefully the last time I have been the victim of a crime involving a vehicle. So far the garage has estimated the cost of repairs to be around £2000. Just wondering if there is any action I can take against any other parties to try to recoup my insurance excess and loss of earnings from? Any help would be very much appreciated. Many thanks.

Inactive

" Foreign " drivers must have valid insurance here, did you manage to see which country the vehicle was from?

It should have had country specific plates if it was registered in the EU.

catflea

You are unlikely to be able to persue the driver.

If you don't want to go through your insurer and lose NCB etc you could go via the Motor Insurance Bureau - believe you have to pay the first £400 though and it'll take a while.

hartcjhart

unless the police catch the other driver you are sadly to say stuck

and yes its the same for us we can drive in any eu country

bryanb

If you have the reg No and country of the vehicle you can pursue the driver via that country's system.

Nixer

It's even worse than that - two years ago I reported a car that has been in this country for four years on foreign plates - possibly longer. I first noticed it when I started a new job in 2003, it was parked near my workplace and I saw it being driven a fair bit. I still see it around occasionally so the DVLA did sod all despite me giving them details about where it was parked overnight.

So it has been here 6 years. Good luck to him frankly.