hit & run help

comeasyouare

Hello seeking some advice.
my car was parked outside my home & was bumped into by another vehicle.There was no one in my car at the time & I did not witness the incident however my neighbour witnessed it & then told me.
Neighbor advised the driver then drove away but must have parked further down the street as was seen walking back up past my car. (assumably going to visit another neighbor in the area) but the witnessing neighbour did not see what house the driver went into. The witness described the make, model & color the car to me & right enough the drivers car was found parked a few houses down the street.
I managed to get pictures of the drivers car which had damage on it corresponding to the damage on my car. I also took photos of the registration.
The matter was reported to police. A full statement was given, images of damage to both vehicles sent & witness contact details provided.
it was also reported to my insurer.
It is now months down the line. Contact from the police has been minimal & they still have not been to get a witness statement (despite having contact details).
The police now advise that the car was sold 3 days after the incident & they cannot trace the former keeper & as such are "closing the line of inquiry".
I suggested that the DVLA would be able to provide them the details of the former registered keeper but they said DVLA will not disclose that (find that hard to believe?)
I also stated that the new keeper should have contact details for the former keeper but the police kept saying "due to the way the vehicle was sold" the new keeper doesnt have details for the old keeper - again not sure how accurate that is. Having personally bought cars from private sales & completed v5 i know you are required to put in the details of both former & new keeper. Perhaps it went to auction or was sold via a middle man (though given the timescales i highly doubt it) in which case i guess it's possible the new keeper wouldnt have details for the old keeper but surely the police could just request that information from the 3rd party. can companies refuse to provide details that are part of a police investigation?

honestly i feel like i'm being completely fobbed off to be honest & have lost faith in the police. This person committed a crime at the end of the day & is getting away with it meanwhile I have to pay out my own pocket for damage repair & will be a claim against my policy.

Now, know who the drivers insurance provider is (at least according to my insurer) so again, couldnt the police just contact that insurance company to get details of the driver?
The witness has also seen the driver since back in our street (clearly must visit someone here but not sure which house) in a different car. I have requested police use the registration of the drivers new vehicle to trace them.

is there anything else I can do/suggest to the police. I'm not happy with their response at all. I know it's not a huge crime or anything but really feel like bc of that the police just don't want to waste their time with a trivial investigation. But at the end of the day i'm the victim & i'm being penalized.

Also it shouldnt take months for the police to go & get a witness statement should it?

If anyone can provide any advice or let me know whether I have any rights.

thank you in advance.

unholyangel

Have you tried to claim via the other parties insurer? Or is it not the same company who was insuring the vehicle on the date of the incident?

comeasyouare

unholyangel wrote: »

Have you tried to claim via the other parties insurer? Or is it not the same company who was insuring the vehicle on the date of the incident?

my insurer has lodged a claim with the drivers insurer however i'm not sure if that's the insurer of the person who currently owns the vehicle or the insurance company the perpetrator had the car insured with (if they even had it insured)
However the incident was reported straight away to my insurer so hopefully they would have up to date records.
Its months down the line & the other insurer has not responded to my insurer yet .

Can I report the incident to the other insurer even without the drivers details (name etc), obviously I have the registration.

For me the timescale involved just doesn't add up for it to be a legit sale.Its probably been "sold" to a friend or relative for convenience.
I don;t understand why the police aren't pushing this. They initially said that if the registered keeper didn't accept liability they would have to provide details of the driver at the time of the incident & failure to do so would be a different breaking of the law.

missile

I believe if you have reasonable cause, i.e. evidence that this vehicle hit you DVLA will disclose registered keeper?
If you ask registered keeper he will be able to tell you from whom he bought the car?

I would make a formal complaint to the Cheif Constable in your area. This is procedure for avonandsomerset

Shaun_of_the_Dead

A simple way to sort thing is to get the answer to this question.

Was the vehicle insured at the time of the accident and if so who was the policy holder?

Either your insurance company or the police can get the answer.

comeasyouare

missile wrote: »

I believe if you have reasonable cause, i.e. evidence that this vehicle hit you DVLA will disclose registered keeper?
If you ask registered keeper he will be able to tell you from whom he bought the car?

I would make a formal complaint to the Cheif Constable in your area.

yes i saw that thing on the DVLA site so may progress down that route now the police seem to be doing nothing. I find it very hard to believe though that if I ( member of the public) can request that info, why the DVLA are refusing to provide the same details to the police (according to police).

i don't know who the old or new registered keep is but the police keep saying that "due to the way in which the vehicle was sold" the new keeper is unable to provide details on the former keeper (ie. person who it was registered to when the incident took place) but again i find that hard to belive.

comeasyouare

Shaun_of_the_Dead wrote: »

A simple way to sort thing is to get the answer to this question.

Was the vehicle insured at the time of the accident and if so who was the policy holder?

Either your insurance company or the police can get the answer.

according to my insurer the vehicle is insured however as stated above i am unclear whether that reflects current status or status at the time of the incident.
Of course they won't disclose the name of the policy holder (current or former) to myself, but again I believe this IS information the police would be able to get, but they are saying the cannot access those details.
that's why I'm asking, where does that leave me if the police are essentially refusing to progress with the enquiry.

DoaM

The police can easily request details of the registered keeper on X date ... as can you. (And that's what you need - who was the RK on the date of the incident).

comeasyouare

DoaM wrote: »

The police can easily request details of the registered keeper on X date ... as can you. (And that's what you need - who was the RK on the date of the incident).

Ok so why are the police refusing to do so in that case? & Can I make them? As it's going to cost me & i also need to do it via post which is going to take longer.

DoaM

You'd need to raise a complaint with the Police if they're unwilling to progress lines of inquiry any further.

Nothing's going to happen quickly, so you may as well get a request into DVLA anyway.

phill99

You need to adjust your expectations in terms of what the police see as an allocation of their resources.


Although a motoring offence has been committed, what the police are actually saying to you is that they aren't willing to take this further as it involves spending too much of their resources on what is a very low level offence.
People struggle to get police involvement when they have been burgled, robbed or assaulted. The motoring offence committed here is much further down the crime pecking order than any of these other crimes, so the chance of you getting further involvement is zero.
I don't necessarily agree with the polices attitude, but in reality, that's how it is at the moment. Remember we have lost 20000 police officers in the last decade due to austerity cuts and sadly, low level offence don't get dealt with.