Van turned out to be stolen?

panchis

Dear All... please advise!!

I bought a van from a dealer and it turned out to have an owner, the first owner (the claimant) has filed a cliam at the courts claiming for the van back.

1. The claimant sold the van to Mr X for £xxxx, PAYMENT WAS MADE BY CREDIT CARD.

2. The claimant was informed by his bank that the genuine card holder was denying that the transaction took place.

3. At this point the matter was reported to the police by the claimant.

Summary: Someone bought the van from the claimant with a stolen credit card, the van then was sold to a car dealer and then i bought it.

The claimant wants his van... what can i do? Do i have any rights to this van?

Thanks for your responses.

dacouch

What has actually happened is someone rang a car dealer up and gave them a load of blag about they have seen X car on their website. They want to buy it but are very busy, they pay over the phone by credit card (Stolen / cloned card) and say they will send a colleague to collect it.

They collect the car and then take it to another garage and sell it to them eg the garage you bought it from. The card own gets their card statement and then advises the card company they did not buy a car and the card company do a charge back.

The above is fairly common and catches out motor traders who do not realise that they can have a charge back on a card if they transact it over the phone (It can't be charged back if they get the customer to swipe their card and enter their pin into their card machine).

Chippy_Minton_2

panchis wrote: »

Do i have any rights to this van?

In a word, no.

panchis

Thats more or less how it happened, where do i stand now? is the claimant covered in any way by his insurance or from the bank?

Chippy_Minton_2

If the insurance have paid out, which I doubt they will, the van belongs to them.

Anihilator

In this case I think it is more complex.
The van isn't stolen as such.
I would suggest what exists is a contractual issue between the original owner and the person that bought it from them.

Yes that person bought it using a stolen credit card and engaged in a criminal act however they still bought the car and it was then sold on.

The reason the original seller has lost out is because the bank have charged it back which means there payment was less than secure as otherwise the bank couldnt just take it back.

dacouch

Did you buy it on finance or a credit card or visa debit?

Chippy_Minton_2

Anihilator wrote: »

In this case I think it is more complex.
The van isn't stolen as such.

The van is property belonging to someone and it has been dishonestly appropriated by another, with the intent to permanently deprive then of it.

Sounds like a theft and therefore stolen van to me.

neilmcl

Surely the OP can get his money back from the dealer. After all, it turns out it wasn't the dealers's van to sell in the first place.

panchis

In that case, is this a matter between the claimant and the bank??

or The claimant and his insurance?

A transaction took place... why is the claimant suing me?

standupguy

It looks like the vehicle was obtained by deception rather than stolen but it is probable that title cannot pass under these circumstances.

Therefore the dealer did not have title to the van to pass on to you.

You should ask the dealer to refund you all monies paid and then after clearance of funds release the van.

If you had a hp agreement or paid on credit card then you may also have a claim under section 75 of the CCA act - against the funder