Car damaged in staff car park

InsideInsurance

Spicy_McHaggis wrote: »

Ok let's look at it another way, if it is a private car park and there's no evidence of a crime. Why should the police take a look?

The chances are this is an accident, hence why I asked if its a public place. If it's not then the police are unlikely to take an interest and would simply tell the op that.

You could argue criminal damage for any accident claiming the other person was reckless in their actions.

They in theory should take a look because an allegation is made of a possible crime. In practice there is however the combined issue of limited budgets and KPI stats which may mean they think its not worth their time/ in their interests to investigate.

Even if it was on public ground then the police would still be unlikely to be interested unless it suited them to be so, though the fact it appears to have been clearly caught on CCTV could give them a bit more of an incentive.

I am not criminal law expert at all but as far as I was aware criminal damage required intent and simply being careless wouldnt meet that.

Foxy-Stoat_3

Spicy_McHaggis wrote: »

Wrong, the police have to get involved if the road traffic act is not complied with.

Wrong, someone hit me while I was parked up and drove off. I took down their registration number etc and went to the Police. Filled out forms and 2 weeks later said that they have completed their investigations and said that as no injury, they would not take any further action.

OP should put this down to bad luck and move on, best not waste too much time on it and have the dent knocked out.

timbo58

agree with westondave. Give them a couple of working days to fess up, otherwise do a formal request for the CCTV evidence.

Spicy_McHaggis

Foxy-Stoat wrote: »

Wrong, someone hit me while I was parked up and drove off. I took down their registration number etc and went to the Police. Filled out forms and 2 weeks later said that they have completed their investigations and said that as no injury, they would not take any further action.

OP should put this down to bad luck and move on, best not waste too much time on it and have the dent knocked out.

Giving you a form to fill in, completing an investigation and then writing to you is involvement is it not?

Foxy-Stoat_3

Spicy_McHaggis wrote: »

Giving you a form to fill in, completing an investigation and then writing to you is involvement is it not?

Agreed, they got involved. Their involvement was limited to recording the incident by way of me completing a form and them filing it. They said that as I wasn't injured they were not going to do anything to the other driver.

Spicy_McHaggis

InsideInsurance wrote: »

They in theory should take a look because an allegation is made of a possible crime. In practice there is however the combined issue of limited budgets and KPI stats which may mean they think its not worth their time/ in their interests to investigate.

Even if it was on public ground then the police would still be unlikely to be interested unless it suited them to be so, though the fact it appears to have been clearly caught on CCTV could give them a bit more of an incentive.

I am not criminal law expert at all but as far as I was aware criminal damage required intent and simply being careless wouldnt meet that.

From memory criminal damage needs to be wilful or reckless and there needs to be evidence a crime has taken place for the police to record it in the first instance and then investigate it. Sadly in this instance the op has no evidence.

Loving your buzz words KPI, I would imagine the correct recording of crime is on and therefore not a reason for them not to take a look.

Aretnap

InsideInsurance wrote: »

I am not criminal law expert at all but as far as I was aware criminal damage required intent and simply being careless wouldnt meet that.

Carelessness isn't sufficient, but recklessness can be. There is a slightly notorious case involving a pedestrian who ran into the road without looking and was convicted of causing criminal damage to the car that hit him.

In general where mens rea is required it can take the form of either intent or recklessness. In the case of criminal damage, recklessness is specifically covered in the wording of the law (link).

Spicy_McHaggis

Foxy-Stoat wrote: »

Agreed, they got involved. Their involvement was limited to recording the incident by way of me completing a form and them filing it. They said that as I wasn't injured they were not going to do anything to the other driver.

So I wasn't wrong?

You reported it, they dealt with it and you didn't like the outcome would have been better than saying I was wrong.

Yeah I agree with you, it's !!!! someone got away with failing to stop when you provided the evidence but these are the times we live in. Come April it wil on,y get worse. A

Foxy-Stoat_3

Spicy_McHaggis wrote: »

So I wasn't wrong?

You reported it, they dealt with it and you didn't like the outcome would have been better than saying I was wrong.

OK, you wasn't wrong I was. OP, get the Police "involved", they will achieve the square root of f*ck all but you will have to fill in some forms for them to file for their involvement.

Good lucks

InsideInsurance

Spicy_McHaggis wrote: »

Loving your buzz words KPI, I would imagine the correct recording of crime is on and therefore not a reason for them not to take a look.

Dont know how their stats are generated for "correct recording of crime". From personal experience I know a bag that went from under a table I was sitting at was deemed "lost property" because "if you dont see someone take it then its lost not stolen". They did offer a lost property ticket number but on the basis insurance and work wanted a crime reference number that was useless so to the best of my knowledge nothing was ever recorded. Went to the police station in person and the officer behind the desk didnt take any notes etc

Certainly in those days and in person it was easy enough to cook the books. Not convinced things are much better now as with several calls to the PC that was dealing with my hit and run there were no details taken so clearly no tracking of each call received etc.