Hit by Virgin Media van, they now say he was at home asleep.

yasmeen87

Help needed please, a bit of a long story...

A few weeks ago my husband, me and one friend were travelling in Luton (we are from Suffolk). When on a roundabout a car changed lanes in front of us and my husband had to do a emergency break, behind us was a white ford transit van who then went into the back of us, he was clearly too close and going too fast. He broke our back bumper, cracked the light, and dented the boot which is now out of line all on the passenger side (as he had turned slightly when he broke). Anyway my husband asked for his policy number, name, etc and he said he worked for Virgin Media and it was a company van and he gave us his registration mark of the van (we checked it matched) and telephone number for virgin media, his name and some address in Birmingham. When we returned home to Suffolk the next day we passed on all these details to an accident claim management company and they said they are going to deal with the claim for us, they gave us a courtesy car and sent someone to take pictures of our car. Anyway it's now been 13 days since they gave us the car and this morning we get a call saying we have to give it back because Virgin Media our now saying they're guy was not involved in the accident as he was at home sleeping at the time and they have sent pictures to show there is no damage on their van at all, but we saw there was some damage to his bumper. We never thought at the time to take pictures or call police as he admitted his mistake at the scene and wrote the details down himself, we thought he's working for a big company so he wouldn't dodge us. So anyway they have took the car but they are now asking them that how could we get his details if he was not involved but they have not yet replied. We have now also today contacted our own insurance company (we have fully comp business insurance with co-op) and told them everything and they are going to call back within 2 hours.

But could anyone else please give any advice to us? We're worried now as it may be a case of his word against ours and they say even though there was 3 of us in the car we don't count as witnesses.

:mad:

InsideInsurance

You do count as witnesses, just not independent ones.

You also didnt get given a courtesy car but a hire car on credit terms (aka credit hire).

Civil law works on the basis of the balance of probability rather than beyond reasonable doubt as the Criminal law does. As such, if it goes to court a judge decides which is most likely to be true, that the accident happened and he gave you the details or that he was asleep at home and you've made it up.

Therefore the more evidence that there is the more likely it would go in your favour.

You say he gave the reg plate, did he write it or tell you it? If he wrote it do you still have the paper with his handwriting? The other one that is often done is describing the driver and the insurer comparing that to a photo of the driver.

yasmeen87

He wrote all the details himself on a piece of paper and we still have it, we also gave the claim management company a full description of him and what he was wearing. He wrote the registration himself too and we did check on the van that it matched and checked online that it is a ford transit white van and it is insured. He also gave us an address in Birmingham but his name does not appear on the public electoral roll for that address.

InsideInsurance

It certainly sounds fairly positive, obvious risk of cloned plates though.

Was there sign writing on the van at all?

Unfortunately some of these come down to a game of nerves between the two insurers and if in the first instance your insurers are willing to issue and secondly if their insurers are willing to defend litigation.

yasmeen87

There was no signs, but they do accept that the guy works for them but say he was at home asleep, so if it was cloned plates how did they get the owners name and job details?

Do you think it would help at all to report at our local police station?

InsideInsurance

Assuming all those details match then it is highly unlikely to be (and again we get back to balance of probability). The concern would be that they have simply written to the guy on their system and not actually checked if your provided details match up with his..... some element of claims handling is more about volume processed rather than quality these days (and in mine).

Ultimately you need to leave it in the hands of your insurers now the ambulance chasers have decided it is too much hassle for their tastes but I'd expect them to want a photocopy of the note, description of the driver and the vehicle etc which they'd present to the TPI again and want to see their response to them

yasmeen87

Ok, thank you very much for your help. Will see what they both come back with now.

McKneff

Its all very well him saying he was at home asleep, was he on duty, if he was it will be recorded.


maybe he was off duty and doing something he shouldnt have been.

Guard the bit of paper with your life and do some photocopies of it too as the insurance people will probably want to see it.

jd87

Sorry I know it's not massively relevant, but I have to ask: Why was your first call to a bunch of ambulance chasers instead of your insurance company?

lisyloo

how did they get the owners name and job details?

It's not that difficult to use someone else's name.
I'm sure there are lots of people you know that you could name and know where they work.

We can't pre-judge what's going on here, but I would say take a camera next time (phone camera will do), take pictures of vehicle and driver.
Also if you can get some independent witnesses.
I know that's not always easy if you are injured or it's deserted, but if there is traffic then try to wave someone down. I've waved someone down in slow moving traffic and they kindly agreed to be a witness.
I'm not saying it's always possible, but if you can do it without putting yourself in harms way, then try to do so. If there's been a crash at a roundabout then there may well be following traffic who saw it and also have to stop.

maybe he was off duty and doing something he shouldnt have been.

I'm not saying I know what's going on here, but the pictures should be able to reveal if it's the same vehicle.
On the face of it sounds like it's all false details including the number plates.

dacouch

Try googling his name to look for pictures of him eg on facebook or by clicking "Images" after you google him.

This would confirm that it is the same guy and say his brother etc borrowed his van with or without his permission