My stolen laptop sold on ebay now possible civil dispute? Please help!

adz2010

MamaMoo wrote: »

Typical.



Do you have a solicitor of your own? May be helpful in preventing this from going to court. However, if the lawyers they're consulting know anything, then there should hopefully not be too much of an issue.

Working on the laywers hopefully should have a response by Monday/Tuesday.

maninthestreet

Can anyone save the police from themselves? You don't lose legal title to you own property if it is stolen. As a consequence, the thief cannot pass on legal title to anyone they 'sell' the item to. The police should be returning your property you, assuming it's not required as evicence in any criminal proceedings.

adz2010

Thank you to everyone who has responded will let you know how I get on.

shaun_from_Africa

Even though you didn't claim on your car insurance, do you have legal cover as part of your policy?

If so, it might be worth contacting your insurers to see if this cover will pay for you to speak to a solicitor.

adz2010

maninthestreet wrote: »

Can anyone save the police from themselves? You don't lose legal title to you own property if it is stolen. As a consequence, the thief cannot pass on legal title to anyone they 'sell' the item to. The police should be returning your property you, assuming it's not required as evicence in any criminal proceedings.

I will mention this to the lawyer tomorrow.

Thanks so much for this. The whole situation does not make sense to me at all. Why cant they just give my property back? I am hoping a phone call from my lawyer will hurry up the process!

MamaMoo_2

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/wales/consumer_w/consumer_common_problems_with_products_e/consumer_lost_found_and_uncollected_goods_e/stolen_goods.htm

unholyangel

How much was the laptop brand new and how old was it?

It doesnt have any bearing on you still being the legal owner but i'm trying to comprehend why someone would pay £690 in cash for a 2nd hand laptop from a private seller. They're either incredibly manipulative and faked the sale just in case or well.....they mustve came up the clyde in a banana boat yesterday.....(latter being more believable imo as sadly, some people really are that gullible)

The reason I was asking about insurance as this is the only way (to my knowledge anyway) that you couldve lost your title to the goods. When your insurance company pays out on a claim, the goods become theirs and if recovered, they would go to the insurance company, not you as you would have zero claim on them.

But since you didnt claim on your insurance, you should still have title.

Police do not always get it right. Dont be afraid to question them, just be careful how you do it. Dont be obnoxious, rude etc. I've found if you're reasonable with them, they'll be reasonable with you.

Fire_Fox

adz2010 wrote: »

She paid for it via cash.

Cash or Paypal or card is not your problem, IMO they need to claim off the seller. But the police do have to do their job and establish the facts, make sure that the laptop is genuinely yours. Some people do sell their property and claim from the insurers for example.

Maybe research eBay policy on stolen goods and cash purchases and pass that information on?
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/stolen.html
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/safetycentre/lawEnforcementReporting.html
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/pay/pay-on-ebay.html
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/accepted-payments-policy.html

zzzLazyDaisy

adz2010 wrote: »

I will mention this to the lawyer tomorrow.

If you are paying a solicitor for legal advice, your legal fees are very quickly going to exceed the value of the laptop.

I have never heard of the police referring the issue to a civil court to decide title! Goodness me, the courts would be clogged up if the police had to refer every case of stolen property to the civil courts before returning it to the rightful owner!

The law is clear on this. The seller did not have title and so the buyer did not acquire title, so the police should return the laptop to you and the buyer is left to get whatever redress they can from the seller.

nomoneytoday

The ebay seller couldn't sell the item without title.
That title belongs to you.

As long as the court are satisfied with your proof of title, for example with a receipt, the laptop is then yours.

The ebay buyer then claims off the dodgy seller and/or ebay in turn.


(IANAL)