Car crushed without my knowledge or consent!

[sailor sam]

Any news on this one?

 

__________________

Please Note

 

The advice I offer will be based on the information given by the person needing it. All my advice is based on my experiences and knowledge gained in working in the motor and passenger transport industries in various capacities. Although my advice will always be sincere, it should be used as guidence only.

 

I would always urge to seek professional advice for clarification prior to taking any action.

 

Please click my scales at the bottom of my profile window on the left if you found my advice usefull.

[TheGwentDragon]

The Scrap Merchant is obliged under the End of Life Vehicles Regulations to issue a Certificate of Destruction in respect of the vehicle (copied to the DVLA); and under the Motor Salvage Operator's Regulations to obtain the name and address (supported by two official forms of identification, details of which should be recorded and kept for six years) of the person authorising the removal of the vehicle for dismantling.

 

The neighbour has no right to dispose of the vehicle if it were on either a public road (and if it is not taxed on a public road only the COUNCIL, POLICE or DVLA can seize it; a private business does not have the right to unilaterally do so), or if it was on someone else's land. If the neighbour believed the vehicle to be abandoned, she should have contacted the Council. I HATE BUSYBODIES LIKE THAT.

 

I had a similar thing happen to me. Police pointed out that the Theft Act 1968 Section 1 defines theft as one who "dishonestly appropriates the property of another with intent to permanently deprive the owner thereof". The scrap merchant will claim that they acted in good faith in accordance with the instructions of the third party. The police advised me in my case that the scrap man was negligent but not criminal. Trading Standards required him to sign a Trading Compact (slap on the wrist).

 

OK fundamental principle of law is that one cannot give what one does not have. Essentially, the neighbour has no right to the vehicle. They offered the vehicle to the scrap man without your knowledge and consent. As soon as the scrap man started to dismantle it, or crushed it, he committed Conversion. This is a tort of strict liability. Hollins vs Fowler reached the Court of Appeal (and was upheld), and no subsequent judgment has contradicted it. Essentially, a cotton broker, who sold a consignment, which had been obtained by fraud, in good faith, receiving only seller's commission, was held liable to the true owner for the FULL VALUE of the goods. Of course, the 'honest broker' is entitled to be indemnified by the person causally liable for the mistake of fact.

 

Sounds simplez. Yet the b*****d has faught my claim in the County Court since 2006, and the Court is giving him the latitude. Several people on this forum have advised me to go back to the Police. I am seeing the Superintendent next week, but hold out little hope of getting them to do something about this.

[perplexity]

It is just an opinion, to say that that the scrap man was negligent but not criminal.

 

Is there not a case of Criminal Damage to made of it?

[TheGwentDragon]

I've also made the argument that when he finally crushed the vehicle, he had been told by two POLICE OFFICERS that he had no right to dispose of the vehicle. Therefore theft. Simplez.