Car hit in car park, driver left without leaving details

Paul456_2

This is probably not the right type of forum for this post, but i was wondering if anyone else had been in a similar situation and what they did about it.

Basically someone hit my car in a car park (it's a large car park and there were only 4 cars in total in it, so how they managed this i can't grasp), it hasn't done a great deal of damage, but it's still going to cost at least £400 to fix.

Luckily, a lorry driver happened to see it all and was still there when i got back to my car. He told me the make of the car, the colour and half of the number plate (all he managed to catch). The police were pretty much no use, he searched for half a numberplate and surprisingly came back with too many results.

I've rang the counsel and i'm waiting for them to ring me back about the CCTV footage, but i'm not holding out much hope. I've told my friends who live in the area to look out for the car, especially if it has damage on it's bumper and i will be checking the car park same time next week to see if they're there.

What would you do here?
I have a £500 excess on my insurance, so no use putting it through that anyway unless it costs a lot more than estimated to fix. The police aren't going to find him, although if i do i could give them him number plate, but i dare say they still wouldn't do anything with that.

Shall i just admit defeat and pay for it to be fixed?
It's a hell of a lot of money to me that i can't really afford.
I might even just sell the car for a few hundred less than it's worth because i resent paying to get it fixed so much.
I guess i'm so angry at people's dishonesty these days.

rev_henry

Well if you had the full reg number it would be very simply to get his insurance details from the MIB (or your insurance company could do it for you, but probably cheaper and easier in the long run to DIY). The MIB may still be able to help, though I'm not sure.

I'd try the police again, and try speaking to someone else who might be more interested. Surely there can't be that many cars of x colour, y make and a certain part registration number registered locally? Did the policeman you spoke to check locally on the PNC? I.e. if you live in Scotland and a car comes back registered in Penzance its unlikely to be it...

Strider590

What's the damage?

Paul456_2

I don't know what type of search he did, it's an odd number to be fair, it goes letter-number-letter, and i've not see any plates like that except for private ones, which you would have thought would be really easy for him to find since it's a fairly old car, although still fairly common.

When you say "someone else might be interested", who do you mean?


The damage is a dent running down my drivers door and just onto the front wing with a scrape that has gone right through to metal in a couple of places. The dent isn't that long to be a fair, it's more the bit's when it's gone through the metal that bother me, if it weren't for that i could probably just get the dents pulled and it might not look too bad.

Still awaiting the CCTV people to ring me back, after going to the same car park last night i noticed that the camera spends most of it's time facing the opposite way, so i'm not holding much hope. Why they need CCTV footage of a river i'm not too sure.

rodenal

Your £400 doesn't sound bad given the description of the damage - to reduce it a bit you could try sourcing a door the right colour from ebay or a breakers - it's not usually too difficult to change them over but depending on the colour and age of your car you might not get a perfect match due to fading etc.

If you managed to find one though this would leave you with only wing repar, might halve the cost. I don't believe its worth putting it through your insurance tbh. Also surprised the police can't come up with something if it's a fairly distinctive plate

techspec

I was very lucky when it happened to me. I returned to find yellow paint and a dent in my car. The area was having a lot of work done by contractors in yellow vans. A day or so later i spotted a van with damage to the bumper and part of the body work.

So i called at the depot and asked when they were thinking of letting me know they had hit my car. I was shocked when he said they were trying to find out where i lived, and would pay for any damage. My hunch was right - and they paid in full.

Hop you have some luck with CCTV. If its a carpark you use regularly - keep an eye out for the car. If its small damage to theirs - they may get complacent and return. Hopefully, some of your paint will be on the bumper.

rev_henry

Paul456 wrote: »

I don't know what type of search he did, it's an odd number to be fair, it goes letter-number-letter, and i've not see any plates like that except for private ones, which you would have thought would be really easy for him to find since it's a fairly old car, although still fairly common.

When you say "someone else might be interested", who do you mean?


The damage is a dent running down my drivers door and just onto the front wing with a scrape that has gone right through to metal in a couple of places. The dent isn't that long to be a fair, it's more the bit's when it's gone through the metal that bother me, if it weren't for that i could probably just get the dents pulled and it might not look too bad.

Still awaiting the CCTV people to ring me back, after going to the same car park last night i noticed that the camera spends most of it's time facing the opposite way, so i'm not holding much hope. Why they need CCTV footage of a river i'm not too sure.

The police would search the Police National Computer (PNC), and I meant that they could look for cars fitting the criteria that are registered locally. You or your insurers can access the Motor Insurance Bureaux (MIB) database, which may be able to give you insurance details. Does that make sense?

I meant that a different policeman might be more inclined to help you and dig a little deeper on the PNC or something for you...

cyclonebri1

I think the rev is right here, be a bit of a nuisance and bug the police, at least then you may get some attention, good luck.

mishkanorman

we had a similar situation last year, we had picked up our new car less than 24 hours before - some old git in a car park some how managed to slam into our bumper and drive off (he MUST have noticed). We were left with a sizeable dent and scratching. Luckily someone had witnessed it and left a note on our windscreen, number plate+ driver description+make/model/colour.

We filed a police report straight away, took us an hour at the police station leaving a description of where damage was etc. The police were good to be fair but nothing was done about it, we received a summary letter a couple of weeks later stating they had spoken to the driver and no further action was being taken, the letter oddly gave his full name & address.

The damage was repaired as best as possible by FIL so didnt cost us thankfully !

Good luck OP!

cyclonebri1

mishkanorman wrote: »

we had a similar situation last year, we had picked up our new car less than 24 hours before - some old git in a car park some how managed to slam into our bumper and drive off (he MUST have noticed). We were left with a sizeable dent and scratching. Luckily someone had witnessed it and left a note on our windscreen, number plate+ driver description+make/model/colour.

We filed a police report straight away, took us an hour at the police station leaving a description of where damage was etc. The police were good to be fair but nothing was done about it, we received a summary letter a couple of weeks later stating they had spoken to the driver and no further action was being taken, the letter oddly gave his full name & address.

The damage was repaired as best as possible by FIL so didnt cost us thankfully !

Good luck OP!

Given you had a witness and all the neccessary infomation, why on earth didn't you put it through your insurer??????????

mishkanorman

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

Given you had a witness and all the neccessary infomation, why on earth didn't you put it through your insurer??????????

Because there was no need to claim ?????????????


As I stated the "The damage was repaired as best as possible by FIL so didnt cost us thankfully !"