Private Sale

atrixblue.-MFR-.

whilst in uniform public servant, whilst out of uniform civillian (unless on duty in civi clothes).

if he is a police officer this will note bode well with either his superiors nor his colleagues using his position in the police force whilst off duty to gain advantage from a member of the public he took an oath to protect.

if not then he is impersonating a police officer and is againt the law!

red_eye

Lisa_Atkinson wrote: »

Hi There

Short (well kind of lol) of the story is, we put a 2002 64k mileage 206GTI on ebay auction, auction ended with no winner as didnt hit reserve of £1500, but 10 mins later someone messages me to say they would offer £1200, so i accepted leaving it that he would collect today as he was only 10 mins away and it meant it got it sorted and off my drive as i needed to pay another car off we have got.The description stated as much as possible all the details of the car and i listed the couple of known faults the car had so he was aware of these, nothing was missed off.

Anyway after various messages he arrives, has a thorough look over the car, takes it for a test drive, goes over it with a fine tooth comb, tells me that because he is a police officer he is cautious with cars after seeing so many cut and shuts etc etc, after bidding me £1200 by message he then barters me down to £1040 as he said that's how much i would have received after ebay fees if it had gone for the £1160 bidding ended at (regardless that i have a reserve of £1500!!), i accepted so we proceeded to sort the paperwork, i had drawn up two receipts both of which stated sold as seen, no warranty given, and both signed and dated.

Then about two hours later i receive quite an abrupt message from him saying that i have been deceitful and have lied to him as when he got home he had a look under the car and saw that there was some putty on the exhaust, he said he was appalled and disgusted that i lied to him and never told him about it, also claiming that one of the other things i had mentioned wasn't what i said it was and that i either pay for a new exhaust or give him his money back plus £20 for fuel he had put in. Well i had no idea there was any putty on the exhaust as we have only had the car since feb (he was aware of this also, the car was only a stop gap until we got insurance money from a write off to purchase the car we wanted) and only covered 1k miles since having the car as it was only used once a week 20 miles a week max, admittedly we never looked underneath the car when we bought it, but the car had just been given a full mot by a very reputable dealer (who we bought it off) and there were no advisories other than for the two items that were stated on the ebay description so we bought it on that basis and that it drove well with full service history and low miles.

I am now being threatened with all sorts because i said that he had signed the receipt saying sold as seen etc, he says that because he is a police officer he knows about this stuff and that in contractual law if there is an act of dishonesty by either party the agreement is void, and that he will be taking me to the small claims court and he doesnt care if he wins or looses because of the police federation he is in its all free so its no skin off his nose basically.

I have phoned citizens advice and they have said that aslong as i didnt describe anything about the cars exhaust system being fine and in working order with no faults there is a very slim chance of his winning any claim, plus the fact he didnt actually buy through or put any bids no ebay.

Im just really worried that as he says he is a policeman he will find someway of beating the system and i will be robbed blind.

Can he do this, does he really have a claim to pursue me even though he test drove it and signed with sold as seen and no warranty and i have all the paperwork, messages etc to back up my argument?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, i am really worried about it, also knowing where i live im already jittering every time a car pulls up with being at home with my son in the day on my own.

Sorry for rambling

Thanks

he is no police officer, a wanna be, maybe security guard. just tell him your granddad know's the chief's grandma and he would like words with you for impersonating a police officer.

hes said hes a police officer ,I think if you ask him for his coller number he has to give it to you

photome

red_eye wrote: »

he is no police officer, a wanna be, maybe security guard. just tell him your granddad know's the chief's grandma and he would like words with you for impersonating a police officer.

hes said hes a police officer ,I think if you ask him for his coller number he has to give it to you

take it you didnt read the whole thread

form one of OPs posts

Ive have had a check on our local police website and sure enough he is a "sergeant Officer" so i am even more p....d off that he had the tone and nerve to show the "im a police man card" and sent me the harassing messages he did, making me feel bloody awful, i feel like a bloody criminal.

BobQ

photome wrote: »

take it you didnt read the whole thread

form one of OPs posts

Ive have had a check on our local police website and sure enough he is a "sergeant Officer" so i am even more p....d off that he had the tone and nerve to show the "im a police man card" and sent me the harassing messages he did, making me feel bloody awful, i feel like a bloody criminal.

I think he has far more to lose than the OP does if he oversteps the mark. Saying he is a police officer is not enough to suggest improper behaviour although even that is not relevant to the matter being discussed so it could be questioned why he was doing it . The Police Code of Conduct is quite broad in its scope:

"Whether on or off duty, police officers should not behave in a way which is likely to bring discredit upon the police service."

"

Police behaviour, whether on or off duty, affects public confidence in the police service. Any conduct which brings or is likely to bring discredit to the police service may be

the subject of sanction."

If you feel threatened by anything he says when he has told you he is a police officer he could be in a tricky position.

If he claims that he understands the law as a police officer and then seeks to interpret it inaccurately he is on tricky ground.

BobQ

pgilc1 wrote: »

+1

O/P - Put a complaint in. I'd ring the duty manager in the police station and ask how i make a complaint against the behaviour of one of their officers. Then follow it through. Make as much fuss in the station as you can - bullying, abuse of powers, etc, etc.

Not sure I agree vwith the last bit. You could easily be arrested for breach of the peace!

BobQ

The OP needs to distinguish between the buyer claiming he is a police officer and saying he intends to make a claim in the small claims court. In some respects it was silly of him to mention being a copper since the two matters are easily conflated. As an individual he is perfectly entitled to take you to a small claims court, his mistake would be to try and persuade you to settle by making any claim that as a police officer he has expert knowledge that will ensure he wins or of course threatening you that if you do not pay up their could be "consequences" as a result of his position. But just saying I am a copper and then saying I am taking you to a small claims court is not threatening you.

Small claims are civil matters and you are unlikely to face legal costs arising from any solicitor he employs. Based on what you say he will have great difficulty winning such a case unless he can prove (balance of probability) that you lied about something (not failed to mention) or misrepresented the vehicle's condition and that as a result he suffered a loss. He would also need to be able to show that it was there on the day of sale. That said you should look very carefully how you advertised it in case you made any claim that is challengable.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

BobQ wrote: »

The OP needs to distinguish between the buyer claiming he is a police officer and saying he intends to make a claim in the small claims court. In some respects it was silly of him to mention being a copper since the two matters are easily conflated. As an individual he is perfectly entitled to take you to a small claims court, his mistake would be to try and persuade you to settle by making any claim that as a police officer he has expert knowledge that will ensure he wins or of course threatening you that if you do not pay up their could be "consequences" as a result of his position. But just saying I am a copper and then saying I am taking you to a small claims court is not threatening you.

Small claims are civil matters and you are unlikely to face legal costs arising from any solicitor he employs. Based on what you say he will have great difficulty winning such a case unless he can prove (balance of probability) that you lied about something (not failed to mention) or misrepresented the vehicle's condition and that as a result he suffered a loss. He would also need to be able to show that it was there on the day of sale. That said you should look very carefully how you advertised it in case you made any claim that is challengable.

no not a threat but intimidation, he mentioned being a copper to intimidate the OP into a refund with his authority status wich to me that is purely a tactic to scare and intimidate the OP in what would otherwise be to anyone else of the street an no go as the car was described to best of knowladge, that is not on and that is still breach of conduct off duty or not.

Flyboy152

Lisa_Atkinson wrote: »

Thanks again for all your replies.

We left it that he was taking me to the small claims court because he had looked at the car when he got home, found the putty told me i was a liar, i had actively tried to deceive him, and as i said i didnt realise that there was any putty he said i couldnt possibly not have noticed, why would have i noticed??, there was nothing wrong with the bloody exhaust it didnt blow or make any horrible noises etc, it was given the once over when we bought it by the garage and like someone has said on here its not an mot failure and i have looked it up too and its available from halfords,its only done 1000 miles since its mot and there was no mention of any putty in the mot, i refused to give him the money for an exhaust as he tried to say it was going to be £136 ex vat plus labour that would have to be at my expense (yeah right!!) and refused point blank to give him the money back for the car as he wanted extra for the blooming fuel he had put in, he even kindly offered to pop back and collect the cash from us so he could get the work done!!!

Ive have had a check on our local police website and sure enough he is a "sergeant Officer" so i am even more p....d off that he had the tone and nerve to show the "im a police man card" and sent me the harassing messages he did, making me feel bloody awful, i feel like a bloody criminal.

So if he wants to use his police powers and employ a solicitor and take me to small claims then there is nothing i can do, id like to see him try and win as i have every bit of paper work, message trail to back me up (mileaege stated on mot sheet, and mileage on car speedo etc showing only 1k miles that we had used, signed receipt saying sold as seen no warranty, i have the v5 with all his details, description on ebay, and all his messages, some of which were him actively telling / advising me to not pay my ebay invoice for the second chance offer when bidding ended, and to tell ebay the car was repossessed so i don't have to to pay the fees, not really what a police officer of his rank should be advising me, in writing too!!!!!) All this over some bloody putty, he has got a £1000 car worth nearly 600quid more, he was even telling me when he was looking at the car that he has a mate that does work on cars and he gets police mates rates!!! gRRRRRRRR

I was so jittery last night, everytime a car drove past i was looking out the window, i still cant get the whole situation out of my mind.

Thanks again for all your replies, you have all made me feel so much more upbeat :j

I suggest that you keep all the messages he has sent you and present them to his Superintendent. He could face serious disciplinary action for this.

Trebor16

Flyboy152 wrote: »

I suggest that you keep all the messages he has sent you and present them to his Superintendent. He could face serious disciplinary action for this.

Wouldn't it depend on the content of the messages? And as for presenting the messages to the superintendent, he or she will simply pass them on to someone else to look into the matter.

Perhaps you should think a little before you put finger to keyboard.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

yes i agree that this is something that the whole station where he is based is unaware of i.e registering a complaint, this should be done to a force area HQ rather than a station relevant to the officer in question this is so he doesnt get a heads up and the complaint, and someone cant accidently lose the information youve provided.