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Unknowingly bought a stolen car. Advice urgently needed.
Please bear with me as I am new to this forum.
On 24th April 2011 I bought a car from a garage for my daughter and my 2 year old granddaughter to get around.
It was a Ford Mondeo 2000 model, which I managed to purchase for £500. as the tax was due at the end of that month.
The garage provided me with a bill of sale, 2 sets of keys, all old tax discs, full service history, MOT certificate and v5 documentation, which I filled in promptly to change ownership to ourselves.(myself and husband)
However 6+ weeks later, on 9th June my daughter rang to say that when she and her friend came out of their gym session, they found that the car was gone. 2 police officers informed her that it had been impounded as it was recorded as a stolen vehicle.It was only reported as stolen on 7th June. She brought the officers down to our house and we produced all relevant documents to prove that we were the owners and had purchased 6 months tax, were insured, mot,d etc and that everything was totally above board.The officers said it was a mistake and we would recover the car the next day.
As the story of my investigation has revealed is that,
After 6+ weeks of ourselves owning this vehicle,
Another garage reported mondeo stolen on 7th June as he handed over all documents to a GUY, who contacted another GUY who sold it to the garage whom we bought it from.
As of persistently contacting two forces involved, the story is that the original garage now does not want to press charges with the GUY whom he gave all documentation to, as the officers will only tell me that he has recently come off a TAG and the garage do not want to prosecute. The garage have also declined an interview to take a statement and also told the officers he does not want to be interviewed at his home address.
The garage I bought the car from also know the GUY who has just come off a TAG.
I did go to the garage asking for a refund of the £500 as they did not sell me proper title. They were not very co operative.
The officer dealing with this seems to be on nights a lot, so that does not help matters, but I have been told that the impound fees will be our responsibility, and as of tomorrow they have accrued to £892.
My husband has lost his teaching job 6 weeks ago and we do not have that sort of money lying about.
Surely someone is responsible for those fees.
We have lost our purchase price, the car, and are now facing a huge bill for,in my opinion, wrongful impounding.My daughter has also had to borrow money to replace this car.
We are the innocent party in what sounds like a shambles and a scam.
Any advice would be most appreciated.
By the way, my daughter was not arrested and received no paperwork to say it was recorded as stolen and did not receive an incident number or recovery details, I only found these out due to numerous calls over the following days.
On 24th April 2011 I bought a car from a garage for my daughter and my 2 year old granddaughter to get around.
It was a Ford Mondeo 2000 model, which I managed to purchase for £500. as the tax was due at the end of that month.
The garage provided me with a bill of sale, 2 sets of keys, all old tax discs, full service history, MOT certificate and v5 documentation, which I filled in promptly to change ownership to ourselves.(myself and husband)
However 6+ weeks later, on 9th June my daughter rang to say that when she and her friend came out of their gym session, they found that the car was gone. 2 police officers informed her that it had been impounded as it was recorded as a stolen vehicle.It was only reported as stolen on 7th June. She brought the officers down to our house and we produced all relevant documents to prove that we were the owners and had purchased 6 months tax, were insured, mot,d etc and that everything was totally above board.The officers said it was a mistake and we would recover the car the next day.
As the story of my investigation has revealed is that,
After 6+ weeks of ourselves owning this vehicle,
Another garage reported mondeo stolen on 7th June as he handed over all documents to a GUY, who contacted another GUY who sold it to the garage whom we bought it from.
As of persistently contacting two forces involved, the story is that the original garage now does not want to press charges with the GUY whom he gave all documentation to, as the officers will only tell me that he has recently come off a TAG and the garage do not want to prosecute. The garage have also declined an interview to take a statement and also told the officers he does not want to be interviewed at his home address.
The garage I bought the car from also know the GUY who has just come off a TAG.
I did go to the garage asking for a refund of the £500 as they did not sell me proper title. They were not very co operative.
The officer dealing with this seems to be on nights a lot, so that does not help matters, but I have been told that the impound fees will be our responsibility, and as of tomorrow they have accrued to £892.
My husband has lost his teaching job 6 weeks ago and we do not have that sort of money lying about.
Surely someone is responsible for those fees.
We have lost our purchase price, the car, and are now facing a huge bill for,in my opinion, wrongful impounding.My daughter has also had to borrow money to replace this car.
We are the innocent party in what sounds like a shambles and a scam.
Any advice would be most appreciated.
By the way, my daughter was not arrested and received no paperwork to say it was recorded as stolen and did not receive an incident number or recovery details, I only found these out due to numerous calls over the following days.
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Comments
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All sounds a bit weird to me but I'd have thought......
If the car is stolen then the impound fees etc are the responsibility of the real owner and you can recover the £500 plus any other consequential costs from the garage that sold it to you, if necessary using the court system (assuming they have the assets to pay)
If it's not stolen then police wrongly impounded it and will be responsible for all costs0 -
All sounds a bit weird to me but I'd have thought......
If the car is stolen then the impound fees etc are the responsibility of the real owner and you can recover the £500 plus any other consequential costs from the garage that sold it to you, if necessary using the court system (assuming they have the assets to pay)
If it's not stolen then police wrongly impounded it and will be responsible for all costs
+1
Car stolen, responsibility of owner to pay fees.
Go through the small claims court to recoup the £500 - oh and make plenty of noises about the dealer selling stolen cars - speak to your local councillors, trading standards, the police (ask them to investigate it further), your local MP, contact the local newspapers, etc, etc.0 -
Local paper will be on this like a shot, get on the phone.
and agreed, let who claims to own the car worry about the pound charges.
Issue a notice before action letter on the dealer for the £500Hi, we’ve had to remove your signature. If you’re not sure why please read the forum rules or email the forum team if you’re still unsure - MSE ForumTeam0 -
I will be contacting my local counciller. the garage said they had no responsibility to refund my money as they believed that they had done nothing wrong in selling it to me.
"Issue a notice before action letter on the dealer for the £500". How do I go about that please?0 -
On the receipt does it say LTD such as crhap cars LTD or is it just a trading name, if so does it have a Proprietors name ?Hi, we’ve had to remove your signature. If you’re not sure why please read the forum rules or email the forum team if you’re still unsure - MSE ForumTeam0
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I will be contacting my local counciller. the garage said they had no responsibility to refund my money as they believed that they had done nothing wrong in selling it to me.
"Issue a notice before action letter on the dealer for the £500". How do I go about that please?
They sold you a stolen car.
Thats their problem, not yours.0 -
Surely the problem that occured prior to you owning the car is irrelevant as you obtained goot title when you bought it from the trader in April.
And since the car has been.in the name of your daughter since April then surely tye dispute between the two.garages is a civil one.
In this case you need to talk to CAB and perhaps Trading Standards.
God know why he Police impounded it as the person reporting it wasn't the registred keeper.0 -
Surely the problem that occured prior to you owning the car is irrelevant as you obtained goot title when you bought it from the trader in April.
And since the car has been.in the name of your daughter since April then surely tye dispute between the two.garages is a civil one.
In this case you need to talk to CAB and perhaps Trading Standards.
God know why he Police impounded it as the person reporting it wasn't the registred keeper.
That may be the case with finance but not with a stolen vehicle.0 -
I don't think you are correct.
They gained good title at time of puchase.
The car was reported stolen long after they had gained good title.
I still don't know how the Police accepted a stolen report from somebody that didn't own it.
Personally I would put in a complaint against the Police Force that accepted the spurious theft report.0 -
I don't think you are correct.
They gained good title at time of puchase.
The car was reported stolen long after they had gained good title.
I still don't know how the Police accepted a stolen report from somebody that didn't own it.
Personally I would put in a complaint against the Police Force that accepted the spurious theft report.
So if I stole your car when you were on holiday, sold it to a garage who then sold it on before you got home and reported it. You accept the new owner had good title to it?0
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