Any Legal Eagles Out There With Regards To Shops Buying Stolen Mobiles!!!

littlerobotseeker

Just wanting a bit of 'legal' advice please...if there is anyone in the 'know' about...

A week ago i had my mobile (as new w800i, gorgeous, cute little phone..sorry still feel tender about it) it was taken from my house by my sons friend!!!!

Denied it at first then week later admitted it...he had sold the phone to a mobile phone shop in the town centre...

Called into the store, they had one on show but unfortunately it wasn't mine...they had a record of one being purchased by themselves from a customer for £45...but couldn't say if it was mine as they don't write the IMEI numbers down, tried to fob me off saying it was for the one in the shop..

Anyway to cut a long story short, the boy was 15, had no i.d. His mother went into the shop to complain at them buying from him, they said they had no record of it and glady take mobile phones off 10 year olds to re-sell....bragging about it saying it wasn't illegal...

What i would like to know is if this is legal as they said... i don't see how it can be as they are buying and selling on stolen property....what can i do about this, i am considering writing to the local 'Trading Standards' office and will be informing the police when they arrive to take a statement...

Any advice greatly appreciated....

SenorGroucho

If it was me I would go to the shop, speak to the manager explain that the phone was stolen, ask to buy it back for the price they paid for it, (get the money off the your sons friend) .
If they refuse explain that you will report them to the police for receiving stolen property and have the phones IMEI added to the networks blocked list.

redux

I wouldn't feel much like wasting time going to the shop again, but I think you must talk to the manager; it might be one rogue staff member that the lad dealt with, or it might be the policy of the whole place.

It's a bit of a dilemma personally as the other mother is trying to help, but ultimately you could report it to all the parties mentioned and make a particular point of naming the shop to the network and the insurers

I've got a nasty felling you haven't discussed this with the network yet, and that might prejudice your position with them ...

arnie&caseysma!

Sons friend or not I would report him to the Police and give them all the details you know. You should also report this phone as stolen to your network provider so that the IMEI can be blocked which means the phone will not be able to be used with ANY UK network.
The Police will be able to go to the store and if they still have it check your IMEI against that which is recorded on the phone. This can be done by either removing the battery and checking against the IMEI which is on a sticker there, or by using *#06# on a switched on phone.

Unless the phone shop is working totally illegally and generating new IMEI and re-programming (which is highly illegal to do unless the manufacturer of the phone) then they will be able to get this phone back for you.

When you get another phone, or you can still do it with this one, go to

https://www.immobilise.com

which is a free service to join and register your mobile and other property. You can provide a description of the phone and the IMEI. You can also report it as stolen on this service and enter date, time, location etc.

The Police have access to the National Mobile Phone Register so fingers crossed if it is not recovered from the shop they will be able to check the shops CCTV if they have such a thing, hopefully track down the person sold to and then get the phone back by checking the details against the register (which encompassess immobilise.com).

As a result of all it should result if your sons friend being charge with theft, and the shop staff being charge with reset.

Good luck

avondale

Basically they are HSG handling stolen goods. Unfortunately some of these types of premises are little more than places for thieves to fence there goods. First thing i would do is report the theft to police, so that you have a crime number and in terms of the mobile phone company you can quote them that number. Secondly does your sons friend not have any type of receipt from this company. As other persons have said it's quite easy to trace stolen phones via the IMEI number and there's also a national database that police have access to. Now the tricky part, perhaps you could persuade your sons friends mother to attend the cop shop with her little blighter, i can't remember his age but if under a certain age, he's under the age of criminal responsibility also it's likely he would get a repimand or warning if over 14 if he is of good character. This in turn could be a way of the cops then getting authority to do a section 18 search( power to search premises) or a search warrant for the venue for stolen property being your phone. I know the above is highly unlikely, but you never know. Hope this helps, personally i'd make him do odd jobs until he's payed off the value of the phone and don't let him in the house again.

tsol

littlerobotseeker wrote:

Anyway to cut a long story short, the boy was 15, had no i.d. His mother went into the shop to complain at them buying from him, they said they had no record of it and glady take mobile phones off 10 year olds to re-sell....bragging about it saying it wasn't illegal...
QUOTE]

littlerobotseeker,

If you don't want to go down the reporting it to the police route, then this is by no means clear cut but worth a stab. You could ask the boys mother to sue the store for the price of a new phone and give you the money.

The store assistant is wrong about them not doing anything wrong buying phones of off 10 year olds! This is because the boy (15) has not reached the age of majority (18) and therefore cannot enter into this type of contract. They are void in English law at the minors request (I think).

Small article on contract law and minors

http://www.gillhams.com/dictionary/444.cfm

So, all bets are off either they give you your phone back or the boys mother sues the store for a brand new SE W800i (unlocked) + court fee's + other out of pocket expenses. Worth a stab.

Good luck getting your phone back.

littlerobotseeker

Hi, thankyou everyone for taking the time to read my post and reply to it. I had contacted my network provider and they blocked the phone and sim card (as i was on contract i had to pay £10 to get another sim and transfer my number onto it!!!!then i had to pay to get an old phone unlocked as it was for a different network provider ggggrrrr....)

I could not get my phone back from the shop as it wasn't there. There was one in the shop but when the salesman did the code on the handset to obtain the IMEI number it wasn't the same...i never thought to ask to see the sticker inside the phone as i now know IMEI codes can be changed...

I have been to the police and reported it as i wasn't prepared to lose out on all counts, i have to still keep paying the monthly contract even though i hardly used it to pay for a phone which i no longer have...it's not just the phone it's the personal things that were on the memory card, photos of my kids, pics of my mum who is terminally ill, personal text messages and embarrassed to say 'very revealing pics of me and the other half!!!' things that can't be replaced (especially as i didn't back them up on the pc) stupid me i know...I wasn't going to report it as the punishment his very upset mother is giving him is far greater than what the police will, but that is the only way i could claim on my house insurance as i needed a crime number...

I will be reporting all of this to the police (when they eventually show to take my statement) they just took the basic details when i went to the station and said someone would come and take a statement...heres hoping..

Many thanks, again...

arnie&caseysma!

Any news yet littlerobotseeker?