Likely Police Action?

Diver2

Yesterday I parked my car outside a shop, someone hit the side of it whilst reversing out a parking space. They got out, inspected the damage and then drove off without leaving details. My car is sub 1K value and an uneconomic repair I would expect (the damage was a quite a long scrape along two doors, definately not just a minor "touch"). 

I wasn't there, but was told the above by two guys who witnessed this, took the registration number of the third party car and also took a photo of it as drove away. They approached me as I returned to the car, told me what had happended and shared the photo and their contact details.

I've reported this via my local police website as a potential traffice offence, but prior to this I called 101. The officer I spoke with seemed to imply that action was unlikely to be taken if both cars were insured (they are, I have checked) and that the third party had 24 hours to report the accident anyway. This seems a little wrong to me, since the question of an offence being committed seems seperate to the question of insurance being avaible. I guess the police involvement factor might also help make the insurance claim aspect more straightforwards. 

Any thoughts or guidance?

Thanks

D2
 

Sandtree

Your only issue is if its a cloned plates other than that its a straightforward insurance claim given you have two independent witnesses. In most cases the civil matter of liability is resolved long before any criminal matters are and "being arrested under the suspicion of..." doesn't count for anything, its only convictions that do.

The police simply dont have time and resources to deal with every minor case of littering, vandalism, non-injury RTA etc. At best they will send a producer to the owner of the vehicle and nothing else will come of it. I had the opposite happen where I did give my details to the third party who hit our stationary car (though they claimed we were both moving) and subsequently got a producer saying I'd failed to stop. Local nick took my details, didn't want any form of statement from me but did laugh at the pictures that I'd brought along to show I had clearly stopped at the scene. 

Aretnap

You were fobbed off to an extent. The driver doesn't actually have 24 hours to report it; he commits an offence by nit stopping at the scene, then he commits a further offence if he doesn't report it as soon as possible (and in any event within 24 hours). In addition to almost certainly committing the offence of careless driving by driving into a stationary object (which is always careless driving in the absence of some other good explanation).

That said it might not be in the public interest to prosecute the driver for failure to stop if he does report it promptly. And the bottom line is that the police are under-resourced and have to prioritise which crimes they investigate - and a minor parking accident which will be sorted out by insurance companies ranks pretty low on their list of priorities. So it's unlikely that they'll take much meaningful action. Whether they do or not is unlikely to have much impact on your insurance claim. 

Diver2

Sandtree said:

Your only issue is if its a cloned plates other than that its a straightforward insurance claim given you have two independent witnesses. In most cases the civil matter of liability is resolved long before any criminal matters are and "being arrested under the suspicion of..." doesn't count for anything, its only convictions that do.

The police simply dont have time and resources to deal with every minor case of littering, vandalism, non-injury RTA etc. At best they will send a producer to the owner of the vehicle and nothing else will come of it. I had the opposite happen where I did give my details to the third party who hit our stationary car (though they claimed we were both moving) and subsequently got a producer saying I'd failed to stop. Local nick took my details, didn't want any form of statement from me but did laugh at the pictures that I'd brought along to show I had clearly stopped at the scene. 

I checked the insurance and it comes back to an identical vehicle and colour as on the photo the witnesses took, the driver might have a hard time claiming cloned plates. Plus also, since the driver got out to inspect the damage they had done, I would hope that the witness would be confident that they could identify the driver.

Sandtree

Diver2 said:

Sandtree said:

Your only issue is if its a cloned plates other than that its a straightforward insurance claim given you have two independent witnesses. In most cases the civil matter of liability is resolved long before any criminal matters are and "being arrested under the suspicion of..." doesn't count for anything, its only convictions that do.

The police simply dont have time and resources to deal with every minor case of littering, vandalism, non-injury RTA etc. At best they will send a producer to the owner of the vehicle and nothing else will come of it. I had the opposite happen where I did give my details to the third party who hit our stationary car (though they claimed we were both moving) and subsequently got a producer saying I'd failed to stop. Local nick took my details, didn't want any form of statement from me but did laugh at the pictures that I'd brought along to show I had clearly stopped at the scene. 

I checked the insurance and it comes back to an identical vehicle and colour as on the photo the witnesses took, the driver might have a hard time claiming cloned plates. Plus also, since the driver got out to inspect the damage they had done, I would hope that the witness would be confident that they could identify the driver.

I wasn't suggesting the driver will falsely claim it was cloned plates but considering the possibility it genuinely were false plates in which case the witnesses would confirm the owner and named drivers of the real car with the plates look nothing like the person that hit your car so not help you.

Cloned plates do normally match at least the model and colour of the real car so that they pass the cursory sniff test. Certainly I've seen cases where the mark doesn't match (eg original car was the 306 XL but the clone a 306 X) 

diystarter7

My feeling is that if they were false plates the driver would not have got out but just drive off.

Brie

No more info here re the police.  But I'd def report it to your insurance company giving them all the details you have.  There's a possibility that you will get at least something for your car to help you get a replacement.  

Sandtree

diystarter7 said:

My feeling is that if they were false plates the driver would not have got out but just drive off.

People are odd... many moons ago worked for Tesco in their call centre, had a call from the police because a stolen car had been recovered and in the car was a receipt for petrol with a clubcard number on it from after the vehicle was taken...  so yes, it appears someone was willing to steal a car but paid for their petrol in cash and made sure they got their clubcard points 

Diver2

Brie said:

No more info here re the police.  But I'd def report it to your insurance company giving them all the details you have.  There's a possibility that you will get at least something for your car to help you get a replacement.  

well I am hoping to keep the car,as the damage is limited and I can live with a few scrapes on the doors. It'll likely just be more than the car value to fix by the insurance co. 

Bigphil1474

If the insurance say it is an uneconomical repair, you could still get some money from the insurers minus the scrap value of the car, as well as keep the car. It would become a write off, but doesn't mean you can't continue to use it. Not sure how it may affect any future insurance, but worth considering.

Diver2

Bigphil1474 said:

If the insurance say it is an uneconomical repair, you could still get some money from the insurers minus the scrap value of the car, as well as keep the car. It would become a write off, but doesn't mean you can't continue to use it. Not sure how it may affect any future insurance, but worth considering.

That is what I intend to do. I guess it would just make any future payout lower as it would already be a Cat N (but I hope to run it into the ground without anyone else smashing it further for me!).