Juvenile criminal and compensation award

patcat

A little toe rag aged 17 caused £1200 worth of criminal damage to our car,by climbing on it and jumping up and down whilst under the influence. Luckily he was caught and went before the magistrates where he was found guilty and given a slap on the wrist and had a Youth Offender Order made against him. We were awarded £200 in damages, which I am told we will get as and when he pays it to the courts. (could be 20p a week for the next however many years !!)
As he is underage, could we take a civil action against his parents to try and make a claim against them, as they are responsible for him until he reaches 18. I know that we could claim on our insurance, but this would then result in a 'strike' against our name when its not our fault. ( this has already happened to us a couple of years ago)

bestpud

You can only make a civil claim against the youth in question, not his parents as it is difficult to prove their negligence caused this incident.

If he can't pay, you may have to have it so much a week still though.

I know this as my son was accused of causing damage to a car he ran into on his bike. He didn't cause the damage - they were trying it on!

However, we obviously looked into the implications before we discovered this. He was 14 and we were told the car owner could not claim anything from us, but that they could make a civil claim against our son. It would be held until he was 16 and working (if I remember rightly) unless he had money now, which he didn't.

So basically, I'm sure you could do the same with this lad. The CAB advised us at the time. They also have info about these things on their website - may be worth a look.

Hth

Bestpud