Attempted Theft

[1954Etype]

One of my customers has just reported that his S1.5 FHC was broken into the other week. Had this report from him:

"Had all sorts of troubles with the car. Last Monday it was stolen but the tracker found it in a lock up police retrieved the car but had to pay £150 to get it back, the fuel pump was switched off and they realised this and tried to power the pump with a hard wire, ripping the radio out to get at the cigar lighter and destroying that trying to get at the + side of things very amateurish as the ign swich was easily accessible.

The starter is now fixed. I found that the wire from the ign to the solenoid was open circuited. The tracker people had not immobilised the car in any way so that wire somewhere in the loom is Broken.
I replaced/by passed it, and all is now working."

Seems even the amateurs have worked out the fuel pump switch!

[cactusman]

And have the plod arrested anyone....I very much doubt it....

[christopher storey]

I don't understand the reference to "had to pay £150 to get it back ". Who was it who paid this sum , to whom, and what for?

[cactusman]

Same happened to me. The police recover it to an approved pound....same place they take untaxed cars. The pound then charge a recovery fee. I think if your car is lifted with no tax or mot etc you pay the recovery fee and then a daily charge for every day it is in the pound. Plus of course the motoring fine etc.

If, as in my case, your car is recovered by the police to the pound and then impounded for forensic examination then you are only charged the recovery fee...they don't apply the daily charge. Mine was there ten days while they examined it for fingerprints etc....there were none.

So there were are. If you are extremely lucky and they catch the thieves you can then launch a civil case for recovery of costs of recovery, storage, damage, your time at say £100 per hour and inconvenience against the thieves...providing they have assets you will win and they pay....in theory.

[christopher storey]

Thank you Julian, for answering that. BTW, if caught, a civil action would not be necessary - the Crown Court can and will order compensation. Whether you recover all your losses is, however, a moot point

[JagWaugh]

Wouldn't any recovery charges be covered by your Insurance?

[cactusman]

Subject to your excess, yes. Mine was £300 so the £120 release fee plus £100 to get her trailered home was below this.

[Hugo]

Thank you Julian, for answering that. BTW, if caught, a civil action would not be necessary - the Crown Court can and will order compensation. Whether you recover all your losses is, however, a moot point

I'm not so sure about that. I had a coach window broken by a yob who threw a beer glass through it. As luck would have it a police car came by within seconds and we were able to apprehend the miscreant. And we were able to get a conviction, but the court did not make an order for compensation, and when I called them to ask for his details so I could launch a civil suit, they said they couldn't tell me - due to 'data protection' & all that.
Unfortunately I do have a life otherwise I could devote every waking hour to dealing with this kind of government-inspired BS that seems to come at us from all directions these days.
Of course, even if you do get an order for compensation, it is un-enforceable. That's why they have television programmes about bailiffs and associated heavies, to make us all scared of them so we pay up, but in reality there is nothing they can do, and even less that they WILL do. They can't be bothered. Anybody capable of nicking an E Type and figuring out the fuel pump switch will know this for sure.

[christopher storey]

Hugo : the enforcement procedure has altered radically since the Proceeds of Crime legislation came into force, and in most cases of organised crime , which this sort of stealing to order is, a Proceeds of Crime application is made by the prosecution. It is nothing to do with civil enforcement : an extra 2.5 years , say, on a sentence is a powerful inducement to pay up! ( although I have to agree with you that some do not pay even so )

[Hugo]

Forgive my cynicism, but first they have to catch the perpetrator, then they have to secure a conviction, then they have to enforce the debt. Our neo-Marxist police have no interest in property crime, and I doubt whether those responsible would leave themselves vulnerable to having their assets seized even if caught and convicted. You'll probably get an order for £5 a month or something. There is a yawning gulf between what is presented to the public and the 'actualite' of life in modern Britain.