Police seized my car, NOT MY FAULT, cost me £150 - please help!

hoohoo

I doubt you will get your money back. I think the best you could achieve is to go through the police complaints procedure level by level. That way, you at least get the satisfaction of knowing they will have spent far more police hours handling the case than if they had tried to contact you in the first place. Perhaps that might mean the people involved think twice next time. (Or, perhaps it just means they target your car for the next few years)

The_Deep

The OP has every entitlement to start a thread on this money saving website to seek advice on the issue.

Of course he has, that is not the issue. What gets up my nose is that he thinks that the police should waste their precious time trying to contact him, and that they should not have charged him for the tow truck.

Has he not read that the police are now so overstretched that some constabularies do not have the resources to investigate burglaries.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-154743/Burglary-police-up.html

Sometimes I wonder what planet some of you are on.

bod1467

The_Deep wrote: »

Has he not read that the police are now so overstretched that some constabularies do not have the resources to investigate burglaries.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-154743/Burglary-police-up.html

It was in the Daily Fail? Must be true then.

Johno100

The_Deep wrote: »

Of course he has, that is not the issue. What gets up my nose is that he thinks that the police should waste their precious time trying to contact him, and that they should not have charged him for the tow truck.

So waiting with the car for the tow truck, watching it get loaded and driven away was a more efficient use of time than knocking on the OP's door and asking him to move it?

There is probably a very cosy relationship between the police and their recovery contractor, like this example from Scotland.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/traffic-cop-cleared-to-run-recovery-1080302

grant_uk

The_Deep wrote: »

The OP has every entitlement to start a thread on this money saving website to seek advice on the issue.

Of course he has, that is not the issue. What gets up my nose is that he thinks that the police should waste their precious time trying to contact him, and that they should not have charged him for the tow truck.

Has he not read that the police are now so overstretched that some constabularies do not have the resources to investigate burglaries.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-154743/Burglary-police-up.html

Sometimes I wonder what planet some of you are on.

The planet where we try and give reasonable advice, maybe show a bit of sympathy and try and point the OP in the right direction without making judgemental, sanctimonious and monumental planks of ourselves.

Obviously a different planet to the one you're on.

Trebor16

Johno100 wrote: »

So waiting with the car for the tow truck, watching it get loaded and driven away was a more efficient use of time than knocking on the OP's door and asking him to move it?

Another one with a crystal ball

Johno100 wrote:

There is probably a very cosy relationship between the police and their recovery contractor, like this example from Scotland.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/traffic-cop-cleared-to-run-recovery-1080302

When you read the article you see it is about a hobby bobby (not a proper copper). Very much a case of "nothing to see here folks, lets move along".

LukeMo_2

What gets up my nose is that he thinks that the police should waste their precious time trying to contact him, and that they should not have charged him for the tow truck.

Dear The Deep

I'm not saying the police should waste their precious time, I'm sure they would have ignored my car if there was something serious happening.

And I shouldn't have to pay for the tow truck. They only reason they took it was to charge me. Otherwise they would have moved it to a sensible place.

grant_uk

LukeMo wrote: »

What gets up my nose is that he thinks that the police should waste their precious time trying to contact him, and that they should not have charged him for the tow truck.

Dear The Deep

I'm not saying the police should waste their precious time, I'm sure they would have ignored my car if there was something serious happening.

And I shouldn't have to pay for the tow truck. They only reason they took it was to charge me. Otherwise they would have moved it to a sensible place.

Not sure I agree with that. You don't know what the situation was when they went to deal with your car. They may have needed to move it in a hurry. They may have had other priorities. It may be policy to always get a tow truck in.

The company towing the vehicle away get the statutory fee for the work. Not the police.

Once they've done that, there is money owing. It's not the police's fault your car was moved to where it ended up, so they certainly shouldn't end up out of pocket.

You may have had a prank played on you, but ultimately the car is your responsibility and if you want it back, unfortunately that charge needs to be paid. In the absence of whoever played the prank on you, I don't really see what other option you may have.

My car was stolen from the driveway last year after we were broken into for the keys. It was found undamaged about 10 miles away, but the police needed to go over it for forensics and that meant it needed towing away. I had to foot the bill for that.

I was in the same boat in that my excess was more than the towing fee. If the car had been written off, I would have been able to add the fee to the overall claim, but as it was, I just had to suck it up.

Life is like that sometimes and you have to just cut your losses and move on.

Johno100

grant_uk wrote: »

Not sure I agree with that. You don't know what the situation was when they went to deal with your car. They may have needed to move it in a hurry. They may have had other priorities. It may be policy to always get a tow truck in.

Well if it needed moving in a hurry, then push it!

grant_uk wrote: »

The company towing the vehicle away get the statutory fee for the work. Not the police.

I wouldn't be so sure about that.

http://www.expressandstar.com/news/2010/11/23/west-midlands-police-pay-out-1-3m-for-breakdown-tip-offs/

Up to £1.3 million was made by West Midlands Police in the last two years by tipping off recovery companies about broken down cars, it was revealed today.

The force called contractors to tow away more than 50,000 vehicles in 2008 and 2009. It often receives a referral fee of £25, meaning the force was paid up to a total of £1,346,075.

Recovery firms pay a 'management fee' in return for notification of vehicles that need to be picked up from the scenes of accidents or breakdowns.

grant_uk wrote: »

Mycar was stolen from the driveway last year after we were broken into for the keys. It was found undamaged about 10 miles away, but the police needed to go over it for forensics and that meant it needed towing away. I had to foot the bill for that.

I was in the same boat in that my excess was more than the towing fee. If the car had been written off, I would have been able to add the fee to the overall claim, but as it was, I just had to suck it up.

Life is like that sometimes and you have to just cut your losses and move on.

Did you look at making a claim for the fee on your home insurance as it was a consequence of the break-in?

esmerobbo

Without seeing the actual scene we can only guess what the obstruction caused was. If it was minor then maybe the police could have tried to contact the owner. However that is not as simple as it used to be when the police call in for a vehicle check they have to say why they want it. It could well have been the control centre who said we will just get it moved.

If it was a hazard then did they have a choice but to move it?

Regarding them simply pushing it themselves, that's no longer an option due to health and safety and damage limitation.

Regarding the tow company a friend of mine does this for Merseyside police, they do pay a referral fee for every car they tow in, however if they tow one in and the police later waive the fees they don't get paid.
He does very well but he claims the actual tow makes him nought the money is made on the storage, and the scrap if they are surrendered.

The OP has been very unlucky if it was simply someone's idea of a joke, but we all take that chance every time we park on a public highway. If something happens that makes our vehicle a hazard then it would be moved and unfortunately if we want it back someone has to pay, and its usually us.