bought a stolen car help me please!!

lisaloo

Hi all,
Ok on the 6th march 2011, i purchased a mk4 golf 1.6 on ebay, i paid cash in hand to the seller ( £1750)

we instantly thought on the way home that the car seemed abit fast for a 1.6 , so we got it home i took some pictures of the engine, and uploaded them to a golf forum where i found out the engine was a 2.0 litre, i then contacted the seller asking whats going on, the logbooks and everything say 1.6 he advertised and sold me a 1.6, but the engine is a 2.0 , he said sold as seen, sorry

i then rang the police to ask them where i stand they took the engine number and it came back as a stolen golf gti, they seized the car the next day

i was informed today that the whole car was a stolen 2.0 gti, with 1.6 plates on the car, and chassis/vin numbersd had been welded onto car

now i spoke to the seller again today he said the police had been to see him but all he said was he dident know about it being stolen and the police seem to belive him, they have to take his word.

where does this leave me? i am £1750 down , and have no car
i have been told to take him to small claims court,but as the police belive him that he dident know the car was stolen means they also belive he thought it was a 1.6, therefor the judge will just be moving 1 vitim onto another , which i have been told it wont happen, i am gettin conflicting info on if i should take him to courct or not, i just dont want to loose any more money

any help will be appreciated, thanks for reading

regards lisa

maninthestreet

lisaloo wrote: »

Hi all,
Ok on the 6th march 2011, i purchased a mk4 golf 1.6 on ebay, i paud cash in hand to the seller ( £1750)

we instantly thought on the way home that the car seemed abit fast for a 1.6 , so we got it home i took some pictures of the engine, and uploaded them to a golf forum where i found out the engine was a 2.0 litre, i then contacted the seller asking whats going on, the logbooks and everything say 1.6 he advertised and sold me a 1.6, but the engine is a 2.0 , he said sold as seen, sorry

i then rang the police to ask them where i stand they took the engine number and it came back as a stolen golf gti, they seized the car the next day

i was informed today that the whole car was a stolen 2.0 gti, with 1.6 plates on the car, and chassis/vin numbersd had been welded onto car

now i spoke to the seller again today he said the police had been to see him but all he said was he dident know about it being stolen and the police seem to belive him, they have to take his word.

where does this leave me? i am £1750 down , and have no car
i have been told to take him to small claims court,but as the police belive him that he dident know the car was stolen means they also belive he thought it was a 1.6, therefor the judge will just be moving 1 vitim onto another , which i have been told it wont happen, i am gettin conflicting info on if i should take him to court or not, i just dont want to loose any more money

any help will be appreciated, thanks for reading

regards lisa

I find it hard to believe the police simply accepted his word that he didn't know it was stolen.

lisaloo

maninthestreet wrote: »

I find it hard to believe the police simply accepted his word that he didn't know it was stolen.

i know tell me about it, he's only a young lad, owned it 9 months and the car has been like that for 3 years, he mot'd it like that and serviced it, thats probably why they belive him.

edgex

lisaloo wrote: »

i know tell me about it, he's only a young lad, owned it 9 months and the car has been like that for 3 years, he mot'd it like that and serviced it, thats probably why they belive him.

no he didnt
whoever was doing the MOT would have noticed the different engine


what about the reg documents?
also, how was he insuring it, & registering it with the dvla?

lisaloo

edgex wrote: »

no he didnt
whoever was doing the MOT would have noticed the different engine


what about the reg documents?
also, how was he insuring it, & registering it with the dvla?

all the documents are for the 1.6 car, so he was insureing it like that, i phoned the mot station where he had it mot'd and they said aslong as the emissions was ok, and car was safe they would pass it anyway., i checked with vosa over the milage difference to see if this should of been picked up on, and apparently not, as there could be descrepencies in numbers.

edgex

lisaloo wrote: »

i know tell me about it, he's only a young lad, owned it 9 months and the car has been like that for 3 years, he mot'd it like that and serviced it, thats probably why they belive him.

this makes no sense;
"owned it 9 months and the car has been like that for 3 years"

if he has owned it for 9 months, how does he know its been like that for 3 years?



ive just googled for images of golf engines, strangely enough the mk4's have the engine size identified on the cover
eg

dacouch

Does the car have cloned reg plates

ovoreo

The engine itself wouldn't itself cause a problem. I've swapped out engines in cars plenty and never bothered to change the V5. Of course the rest of the vehicle was the one listed on the V5 rather than it actually being a completely different car. I'm not sure where you stand on getting your money back, small claims maybe but I suppose if the seller can prove he didn't know it was stolen then he may not be liable.

lisaloo

edgex wrote: »

this makes no sense;
"owned it 9 months and the car has been like that for 3 years"

if he has owned it for 9 months, how does he know its been like that for 3 years?



ive just googled for images of golf engines, strangely enough the mk4's have the engine size identified on the cover
eg

the car was reported stolen 3 years ago, the police told me, and when you do an mot check on the 1.6 registration plates that where on the stolen car 50,000 miles was lost 3 years ago, which ties into the car being stolen.

lisaloo

dacouch wrote: »

Does the car have cloned reg plates

no the car has plates on from a 1.6 golf, although the car is a stolen 2.0 gti, the 1.6 golf the plates come off was probably crushed.

Equaliser123

You can reject the car under the Sale of Goods Act as he didn't have title to it.

The fact he didn't know, doesn't make a difference.