Purchased stolen car without known it was

CumerCanitez

I am wondering if there are any wise individuals among you who could offer some comforting words or advice for my current situation?

Unfortunately, I'm going through quite a distressing process. Not only am I dealing with health issues, but I also bought a car recently, only to later find out it was a stolen vehicle with ID tampered and it was seized by the police at my doorstep.

The difficulties I've faced during this process have been extremely draining. The police confiscated the car just a week after I bought it and took it away from my doorstep. It wouldn't be wrong to say that every door I thought I could seek help from has been shut in my face.

The insurance company cancelled the policy and even charged me a cancellation fee without sympathy. Whereas, at least they could waive the administration charges by considering the difficult situation I am in. Furthermore, DVLA sent me a letter stating that someone else was trying to transfer the car and asked if I was aware of it. It seems the vehicle is now returned back to either the insurance company or rightful owner, and they are trying to take keepership over. Although I replied with a letter saying I am not giving any consent for transferring keepership, if they still go ahead, it will be without me confirming this transaction.

In the last couple of weeks, I've talked to numerous law firms. I even counted it to be 37 of them, and only two said they might be able to help. Once they hear I paid in cash, they do not seem interested in my case. Anyway, two of them firms claimed they might be helping me, it seemed they are more concerned about the cost of hourly rate of £250 and how they would get paid than dealing with my problem or helping me to recover my loss.

As I am a member of a union, one of the union-affiliated law firms listened to my issue but said they couldn't help because of the nature of the incident that they do not deal with. That made me feel guilty during this process and hopeless because I can't get any help. I am feeling I am the only person who has done the wrong within the whole matter.

At the start I considered contacting the person who sold me the car. I wanted to write a letter or a message to say the car he sold me is a stolen one, and the police took it, and I want my money refunded. But the union lawyer mentioned it could be risky; it is because before The Police locates him, he may just vanish, and The Police may not find him at all. The person who sold me the car is still selling other items online on social media. I reported it to Action Fraud, but there hasn't been any progress yet. Anyway, what action fraud team is doing to look into criminal acts, whereas my argument is a civil matter, and I do not know why I should not at least try to ask this person to give my money back.

Also, despite it sounded promising, it would not have been anymore than shot in the dark that the union-arranged solicitor suggested I could contact the chief constable of where the region the vehicle was seized and explain that I bought the car in good faith and why it should be the only person who loses everything that the car should be returned to me.

As you can understand from all these happenings, I am just extremely confused. I don't know if I'll get any results, but at least I'll try to the end about this matter and not let this person get away without any consequences. I really have to do something for psychological recovery from these emotional damages if I even cannot recover financial losses. 

Aylesbury_Duck

CumerCanitez said:

I am wondering if there are any wise individuals among you who could offer some comforting words or advice for my current situation?

Unfortunately, I'm going through quite a distressing process. Not only am I dealing with health issues, but I also bought a car recently, only to later find out it was a stolen vehicle with ID tampered and it was seized by the police at my doorstep.

The difficulties I've faced during this process have been extremely draining. The police confiscated the car just a week after I bought it and took it away from my doorstep. It wouldn't be wrong to say that every door I thought I could seek help from has been shut in my face.

The insurance company cancelled the policy and even charged me a cancellation fee without sympathy. Whereas, at least they could waive the administration charges by considering the difficult situation I am in. Furthermore, DVLA sent me a letter stating that someone else was trying to transfer the car and asked if I was aware of it. It seems the vehicle is now returned back to either the insurance company or rightful owner, and they are trying to take keepership over. Although I replied with a letter saying I am not giving any consent for transferring keepership, if they still go ahead, it will be without me confirming this transaction.

In the last couple of weeks, I've talked to numerous law firms. I even counted it to be 37 of them, and only two said they might be able to help. Once they hear I paid in cash, they do not seem interested in my case. Anyway, two of them firms claimed they might be helping me, it seemed they are more concerned about the cost of hourly rate of £250 and how they would get paid than dealing with my problem or helping me to recover my loss.

As I am a member of a union, one of the union-affiliated law firms listened to my issue but said they couldn't help because of the nature of the incident that they do not deal with. That made me feel guilty during this process and hopeless because I can't get any help. I am feeling I am the only person who has done the wrong within the whole matter.

At the start I considered contacting the person who sold me the car. I wanted to write a letter or a message to say the car he sold me is a stolen one, and the police took it, and I want my money refunded. But the union lawyer mentioned it could be risky; it is because before The Police locates him, he may just vanish, and The Police may not find him at all. The person who sold me the car is still selling other items online on social media. I reported it to Action Fraud, but there hasn't been any progress yet. Anyway, what action fraud team is doing to look into criminal acts, whereas my argument is a civil matter, and I do not know why I should not at least try to ask this person to give my money back.

Also, despite it sounded promising, it would not have been anymore than shot in the dark that the union-arranged solicitor suggested I could contact the chief constable of where the region the vehicle was seized and explain that I bought the car in good faith and why it should be the only person who loses everything that the car should be returned to me.

As you can understand from all these happenings, I am just extremely confused. I don't know if I'll get any results, but at least I'll try to the end about this matter and not let this person get away without any consequences. I really have to do something for psychological recovery from these emotional damages if I even cannot recover financial losses. 

I think you need to report the person who sold you the car to the police.  I don't think you're going to get your money back but I understand why you have to try.  Paying cash was always going to be risky.  Did you get some sort of receipt?  How did you come across the car?

Hoenir

Allow the police to get on with job. While it's understandably distressing for you. This might be part of a much larger and far reaching ongoing investigation. At the moment the seller of the vehicle may be oblivious to the fact that it has been seized. Hence their current visibility. 

Alderbank

Reading between the lines, you bought the car from someone selling it on Facebook or similar?

What checks did you do on the car to confirm such things as they were entitled to sell it, there was no finance outstanding on it, it was not a patched up write-off, etc. before you parted with your money?

Did you do a HPI check? HPI have systems which try to check whether it is on finance, been written off, reported stolen or is a ringer (as this one turned out to be). Their checks are not perfect and a few bad 'uns get through but to deal with that they include a guarantee up to £30,000.

So if you paid for a HPI check before buying, you can claim on their guarantee.

Aylesbury_Duck

^^  I suspect you're right, this has all the hallmarks of a social media sale, with a price attractive enough that doing those checks was not a priority.

TELLIT01

Sadly this does look like a case of "If it seems to good be true, it is too good to be true" not being heeded.  It would be interesting to know what the make, model and age of the car is, and how much the vendor wanted for it.

On Facebook there is a group for buying and selling items locally to us.  There are a few car sellers who state they are selling the car they use every day but that seller appears every few weeks.  At best they are a business trying to hide the fact.

CumerCanitez

Aylesbury_Duck said:

I think you need to report the person who sold you the car to the police.  I don't think you're going to get your money back but I understand why you have to try.  Paying cash was always going to be risky.  Did you get some sort of receipt?  How did you come across the car?

it is a social media, not a proper selling website, I had a basic online downloaded receipt both sides signed but I have a long communication history regarding the sale and amount paid for the vehicle 

Hoenir said:

Allow the police to get on with job. While it's understandably distressing for you. This might be part of a much larger and far reaching ongoing investigation. At the moment the seller of the vehicle may be oblivious to the fact that it has been seized. Hence their current visibility. 

That is the only reason I am not trying to engage with the seller, despite he is continuing to sell goods,

Alderbank said:

Reading between the lines, you bought the car from someone selling it on Facebook or similar?

What checks did you do on the car to confirm such things as they were entitled to sell it, there was no finance outstanding on it, it was not a patched up write-off, etc. before you parted with your money?

Did you do a HPI check? HPI have systems which try to check whether it is on finance, been written off, reported stolen or is a ringer (as this one turned out to be). Their checks are not perfect and a few bad 'uns get through but to deal with that they include a guarantee up to £30,000.

So if you paid for a HPI check before buying, you can claim on their guarantee.

   I have paid for Premium service to two different firms for the check, I have also done the check, it asked me against V5C and engine number, yes they are matched, but I haven't gone into the small print to find out if they are providing any cover but I am pretty sure they will have something to cover their back

Aylesbury_Duck said:

^^  I suspect you're right, this has all the hallmarks of a social media sale, with a price attractive enough that doing those checks was not a priority.

no, it was my priority but still had stung

TELLIT01 said:

Sadly this does look like a case of "If it seems to good be true, it is too good to be true" not being heeded.  It would be interesting to know what the make, model and age of the car is, and how much the vendor wanted for it.

On Facebook there is a group for buying and selling items locally to us.  There are a few car sellers who state they are selling the car they use every day but that seller appears every few weeks.  At best they are a business trying to hide the fact.

a kind of it was too good to be true, but the vehicle had "so called-unrecorded" damages that would have cost me further a few grand to put it right that is why it seemed to be a good deal, to be honest for the time being I am not willing to provide much more details but it is over £10k loss sadly

born_again

   I have paid for Premium service to two different firms for the check, I have also done the check, it asked me against V5C and engine number, yes they are matched, but I haven't gone into the small print to find out if they are providing any cover but I am pretty sure they will have something to cover their back

Most would require a VIN to be added for any type of cover.

Did you advise police of who the seller was?
As they are possibly the only way to get money back via the courts. Even then you may not.

macman

£10k sale and the vendor insisted on cash? Didn't that set any alarm bells ringing?
Where did you collect the car from? Do you even know where the seller lives? if not, you cannot take any sort of SCC action against them (and the limit is £10K).

user1977

macman said:

Do you even know where the seller lives?

Or know their (real) name?

pinkshoes

Did you go to the owners address to collect the car? Did you ask for proof to verify they lived at that address? E.g. photo ID with name and address? (It's more than fair to ask for that sort of proof if you're handing over £10k)

If you did the above then I'd be going back to the seller with a letter before action giving them 14 days to repay the £10k. 

If you didn't take due diligence steps when purchasing then you'll just have to let the police do their job.