Car seized by police- odd one

1jim

400ixl said:

Also check that her insurance covers her for recovering the vehicle from a police impound. Bizzarly some don't and they may well check, so could save some headache you won't want at the time.

good shout, will take a look now, she has hastings direct you drive policy so will look up documents... if not presumably can get a temporary policy for an hour or i could drive on my policy i guess but thanks as would hate her to have to deal with this as well (she still hasnt been to bed yet)

DullGreyGuy

1jim said:

400ixl said:

Also check that her insurance covers her for recovering the vehicle from a police impound. Bizzarly some don't and they may well check, so could save some headache you won't want at the time.

good shout, will take a look now, she has hastings direct you drive policy so will look up documents... if not presumably can get a temporary policy for an hour or i could drive on my policy i guess but thanks as would hate her to have to deal with this as well (she still hasnt been to bed yet)

Those are exactly the types mechanisms that dont allow you to get the car released. 

Assuming she has a full/normal insurance from Hastings and its on that vehicle her insurance will allow it to be removed. If you look at the Driving Other Cars extension on your insurance it almost certainly says it cannot be used to release a vehicle from the police, government or other official lockup. Most temp covers can't either. Its a rather basic attempt to stop someone driving without insurance, getting their mate to get the car out and the continue driving without insurance. 

1jim

DullGreyGuy said:

1jim said:

400ixl said:

Also check that her insurance covers her for recovering the vehicle from a police impound. Bizzarly some don't and they may well check, so could save some headache you won't want at the time.

good shout, will take a look now, she has hastings direct you drive policy so will look up documents... if not presumably can get a temporary policy for an hour or i could drive on my policy i guess but thanks as would hate her to have to deal with this as well (she still hasnt been to bed yet)

Those are exactly the types mechanisms that dont allow you to get the car released. 

Assuming she has a full/normal insurance from Hastings and its on that vehicle her insurance will allow it to be removed. If you look at the Driving Other Cars extension on your insurance it almost certainly says it cannot be used to release a vehicle from the police, government or other official lockup. Most temp covers can't either. Its a rather basic attempt to stop someone driving without insurance, getting their mate to get the car out and the continue driving without insurance. 

thanks good to know and makes sense, yes she hs fully comp normal policy including business use, ive looked through policy document on line and doesnt seem to say not covered for this so should be ok :-)

photome

Makes no sense to me why the car was seized. The officer at scene saw all the evidence he needed and was happy. 

Is there a complaints procedure if car is seized unlawfully ?

1jim

photome said:

Makes no sense to me why the car was seized. The officer at scene saw all the evidence he needed and was happy. 

Is there a complaints procedure if car is seized unlawfully ?

totally agree, I would have expected them to caution and report her if they believed she was driving on a provisional license on her own but the officer agreed that he could see evidence of the provision license, the pass certificate, insurance and mot etc so was happy that she hadnt done anything wrong- but said his sergeant wanted the car seized until she could produce a full license (as it still shows on provisional on the computer). no idea of the complaints procedure- would hope to avoid this to be honest as all of us work in nhs and to be honest all public services are stretched and dont want to add to the workload etc.  Hopefully will be resolved at station now, if not will have to look into that.

daveyjp

photome said:

Makes no sense to me why the car was seized. The officer at scene saw all the evidence he needed and was happy. 

Is there a complaints procedure if car is seized unlawfully ?

There's potential for a charge of 'taking without owners consent', but you'd have to show the person taking the car did not have lawful authority to do so.

1jim

phew- sounds like all sorted

went into station and as luck would have it she saw the same officer who helped her sort the whole thing out. sounds like he really didnt want to seize the car but apparently control room insisted so was taken out of his hands.
Showed same documents and car is now being released, doesnt need to produce a full license as pass certificate is accepted.
guess there will be some fees (but she needed a winch out of the verge/ditch anyway, sounds like the seizure may not have been necessary and was potentially outside of the law but hope to be able to put an end to this. 

she is now on her way to the impound to collect the car..... this may give her a nudge to send off her provisional license for a full one. 

Okell

Seems to me this isn't about whether she was entitled to drive but rather about whether or not she can produce the required documents within the prescribed timescale.

@1jim - I'd start a thread over on FTLA pronto/ASAP if I were you:   Speeding and other criminal offences

(I say "if I were you" but it would be much better if your daughter posted herself.  For obvious reasons they can't be bothered wasting their time on "send three and fourpence we're going to a dance" scenarios... )

1jim

Mildly_Miffed said:

At the roadside, did she produce her pass certificate?

Because if she produced just a provisional - or they checked the licence online - then that will not show she passed the test. THAT's why they've given her a producer, and want to see either a full or a prov+pass which they'll count as a full. It's also why they seized the car, because she couldn't prove she was driving it in accordance with a valid full licence.

Whether it's still valid or not is a bit of a moot point - it's daft NOT to get the DVLA record updated at the earliest possibly opportunity. Right now, that one piece of paper is the proof that she passed. If that gets lost, or if her failure to get round to it continues, then she's going to have to retake her test.

yes she showed the pass certificate. she has almost a year to send this off before having to retake any test

1jim

daveyjp said:

photome said:

Makes no sense to me why the car was seized. The officer at scene saw all the evidence he needed and was happy. 

Is there a complaints procedure if car is seized unlawfully ?

There's potential for a charge of 'taking without owners consent', but you'd have to show the person taking the car did not have lawful authority to do so.

potentially but wouldnt be minded to even consider this- the officer was very nice, certainly wouldnt seek to pursue any one in relation to this, the police (and all in public sector) wont always get it right but i genuinely think they try their best in often difficult circumstances