Airport Meet and Greet Driver / Insurance Database Query

tintin218

Hi all,
We used a meet and greet airport parking at London Heathrow recently, and on our return the driver got stopped by a nearby police patrol car (ie not a camera....) for speeding in our vehicle.
Once stopped, the police checked their database to see if the car was insured, and the Police Computer Network database had no record of insurance for the car so they impounded the vehicle.

Given this was 11pm on a saturday night, the police were unable to check with the Motor Insurance Bureau who would otherwise have been able to verify that the car is of course insured with a current and valid policy with a well known company and had been for several months (ie not a new policy or recent renewal...)

Now we've been landed with a £50 taxi fare home and £150 fee for releasing the car from the pound the following morning.

What i'm not clear on here is who is really at fault for the car being impounded specifically, and therefore who could I claim a refund from?

The driver for the Meet&Greet parking company is clearly a prat, and is dealt with privately by the Police for the speeding offence and possible insurance issues depending on the cover he has.
But, if the police were able to see that the vehicle was insured, they would not have impounded it and we would have been able to drive it home that night ourselves.

As I understand it, we have done what we can in insuring the car as owners of the vehicle.

Also, the Police did what they were supposed to do with the information available to them at the time.

So the main issue is that the Police didnt have the right information available to them at the time. Is it up to the Insurers to update the relevant databases? is it up to the Police to update their database against the MIB database?

Or is this a quirk of the system where we are extremely unlucky in that it was an 'out of hours' incident?

Any advice on this matter would be gratefully received....

Ian

bigadaj

Claim your losses from the parking firm, you may have to make a claim and take them to court.

TBagpuss

Have you complained to the meet and greet service, and asked them to reimburse you for both amounts? If not, i would start there. I would take the view that they are liable, as it was their driver's actions which led to the vehicle being pulled over, and presumably had that not happend, none of the rest would have followed.

(It might be different if they had just done a random insurance check, but it sounds as though they pulled him over for speeding and only then did an insurance check)

If it was me, I'd be looking for something to cover the wasted time and inconvenience of having to collect my car from the pound, too!

Bigphil1474

Would have thought the driver would have his own insurance anyway (he couldn't be covered on yours) so why they would impound it is a mystery? Presumably the drivers insurance would be covered in the T&C's you signed up for, so worth checking them for anything that may help.
Might also be worth double checking any paperwork you have from the pound or the police - any typo's on the reg. no. If your car has been insured for months, and the police checked the correct number plate on your car, then it would have shown as insured - if they checked whether the driver was insured and he wasn't, that's different. Check they haven't impounded it due to uninsured driver, not uninsured car. If they checked the wrong reg. then that would be a police error, and if the driver had made a change to the car reg. with a bit of sticky tape, to avoid getting tickets while he's been joy riding in your car for a couple of weeks, then that's a whole different matter.

vikingaero

There's a difference between the vehicle being insured and the details being put on the MID. Ask your Insurers to confirm if at the time of the stop/seizure that they had updated the MID. It is up to the Insurers, not the Police to update MID. If they haven't then claim off your Insurers.

We had a fleet Policy nearly a decade ago where I checked that MID had not been updated for a year and our lorries/vans/rep cars must have been pinging ANPR cameras non-stop, yet no-one was ever stopped.

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

It could be that the driver did not have proper insurance - so having checked that the car was insured, there was no cover on the car that could be applied to that driver, therefore they have a car that needs taking off the road as there is no insured driver. The pound is therefore being used to secure the car, rather than as a punishment. The police might have been interested in seeing if there was detail on your insurance, such as any driver, just to be thorough. Your insurance would not have been relevant to the incident - you were not insuring the meet and greet driver.

So, I think with the perspective of the driver being uninsured, then the police actions are reasonable, and also the meet and greet would have to be considered wholly responsible.

n217970

Think yourself lucky, had the police not impounded it then you could have been making a claim for a stolen car

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-41021763

unholyangel

Im another one advocating checking whether it was down to the car being uninsured or a result of the driver being uninsured.

I think there must be more to this - typically if you're stopped for driving without insurance/car is impounded for no insurance, then all you need to do is prove there was insurance in place (not being on MID does happen occasionally) and that should be the end of the matter.

Never had it happen personally but I would imagine the police would be required to give some sort of documentation to say they had seized the vehicle, why and what you had to do to have it released (ie produce evidence it was insured or pay the fee). Might be worth looking into that angle also.

Warwick_Hunt

tintin218 wrote: »

Hi all,
We used a meet and greet airport parking at London Heathrow recently, and on our return the driver got stopped by a nearby police patrol car (ie not a camera....) for speeding in our vehicle.
Once stopped, the police checked their database to see if the car was insured, and the Police Computer Network database had no record of insurance for the car so they impounded the vehicle.

Given this was 11pm on a saturday night, the police were unable to check with the Motor Insurance Bureau who would otherwise have been able to verify that the car is of course insured with a current and valid policy with a well known company and had been for several months (ie not a new policy or recent renewal...)

Now we've been landed with a £50 taxi fare home and £150 fee for releasing the car from the pound the following morning.

What i'm not clear on here is who is really at fault for the car being impounded specifically, and therefore who could I claim a refund from?

The driver for the Meet&Greet parking company is clearly a prat, and is dealt with privately by the Police for the speeding offence and possible insurance issues depending on the cover he has.
But, if the police were able to see that the vehicle was insured, they would not have impounded it and we would have been able to drive it home that night ourselves.

As I understand it, we have done what we can in insuring the car as owners of the vehicle.

Also, the Police did what they were supposed to do with the information available to them at the time.

So the main issue is that the Police didnt have the right information available to them at the time. Is it up to the Insurers to update the relevant databases? is it up to the Police to update their database against the MIB database?

Or is this a quirk of the system where we are extremely unlucky in that it was an 'out of hours' incident?

Any advice on this matter would be gratefully received....

Ian

The police lift their information off the MIB database so not their error.

angrycrow

No doubt any forum members who are also police officers will be able to confirm this. My understanding is that the police mid lookup will provide names of all drivers listed on the policy for a given registration and what usage they are permitted on the policy.

So in the situation op describes the meet greet driver was pulled for speeding. He gives his name and the police confirm he is not named on the policy showing for that reg on mid. If he was not able to produce evidence of insurance for business purposes the police would not be able to allow him to continue driving the car so their only option is to have the car impounded until they can reach the legally insured keeper of the car.

Police have done nothing wrong here. Parking company driver should have been carrying proof of insurance and not been speeding in a customers car.

Personally I would be approaching the parking company for a refund of the release fee, any costs associated with collecting the car, including lost earnings and a full refund of the charges paid for the parking service. Makes you wonder how the car was stored.

Warwick_Hunt

unholyangel wrote: »

Im another one advocating checking whether it was down to the car being uninsured or a result of the driver being uninsured.

I think there must be more to this - typically if you're stopped for driving without insurance/car is impounded for no insurance, then all you need to do is prove there was insurance in place (not being on MID does happen occasionally) and that should be the end of the matter.

Never had it happen personally but I would imagine the police would be required to give some sort of documentation to say they had seized the vehicle, why and what you had to do to have it released (ie produce evidence it was insured or pay the fee). Might be worth looking into that angle also.

I don't know what angle you're suggesting. The driver will have been given a 165 notice. The OP may have also been sent a copy. He knows why it was seized.