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Hi all; Here's a tricky one for you!
It's a long story which I'll shorten - Back in year 2000 my Jaguar car went into a garage for restoration which the owner said would cost £400 and take two weeks - since then the garage has kept saying what I've paid isn't enough and I'll need to pay more to get it back on the road, so I'd pay more money, then about 6 months later be told it actually needs more money spending on it so I'd pay more money and about 6 months later the same thing would happen again so I kept paying. It came to a bit of head in Feb 2006 when I asked him how much it would cost to finish it off and he quoted me £4000 so I paid him £4000 in the space of 4 weeks. By May the car had not been finished so I asked for it back as it was and his reply was that It owed him storage money so I couldn't have it back. In August my dad died abroad and I asked for the car back as someone would buy it off me as it was so I could use the money to possibly get my fathers body back and he still refused and walked off laughing saying he had his own problems. During this time the car 'storage' consisted of keeping it outside on farmland under a tarpaulin.
Over the next two years I kept asking when it would be finished and he told me it was in storage, when I asked to see it I got told I couldn't but it would look really nice when it was finished.
By October 2008 I was told by my best mate that he'd seen some really dodgy looking Jaguar garage near his girlfriends - So I drove down to where my car was to find the garage had gone! My mate said "it's not here, it's further down the road" and about 5 miles down the road I found it, the garage owner had moved without telling me. At this point I probably done something I shouldn't have - I put a page up on the internet warning people to be wary of him going on what had happened to my car but I took it down about a week later after thinking about it and then rang the garage owner up and told him I'd report my car stolen as I hadn't seen my car for two years and he then agreed for me to see it and admitted he'd moved address it. After showing it was still in existence I then paid another £1250 over 3 months (from November 2008 to Feb 2009) but every time I saw the car it didn't look any different - he pointed out twice how he'd changed the spark plugs etc and nothing had happened. I walked off in disgust after telling it need to be ready as I need it for commuting to work.
In October 2009 the garage owner rang me up ranting down the phone as he'd been told by a business partner about the internet page I put up - turns out it was still floating around the internet and he basically intimidated me down the phone into taking it off, even though I already had (it was cached by google somehow!).
Now this is the interesting bit - I haven't heard from him since 2009 and on the 11th Feb I got a letter from DVLA saying someone had applied to be the registered keeper of my car. I called DVLA who where as unhelpful as always so I went to local police who advised me to contact ring the garage owner while I was in the police station but both his phone numbers had been cut off so the police said they'd treat it as a stolen car. I went home, done some research around the internet and I've found why I haven't heard from the garage owner - back in 2013 he was jailed for 8 years for drug smuggling!!
Now the police officer dealing with it has said he'll do everything he can to get my car back but he seemed concerned that due to the amount of time I've been waiting for my car back it might become a civil case if he cannot prove criminal intent; I pointed out I was actually quite scared of the guy as he said one more than one occasion he knew a few nasty people and his incarceration proves that. Does anyone know where I stand with this? Aside from the money I paid for the work done on my jaguar that garage also sold me another car for £1200 while I was waiting for it to be finished off as I needed transport to work plus I've since had to purchase other cars for commuting to work, in total the amount I've spent is around £14,500 odd. Sadly I never got anything in writing from him about how much it would cost to get my car back on the road but I do still have my bank statements as luckily I paid most of it with cheques.
The garage in question changed name since 2009 and I guess was shut down after he was jailed (it's all boarded up as of Feb 2015) so I've no idea where my car is. The police officer in question is back on shift on 19th so by then he'll hopefully have found out where my car is or what might have happened to it. I guess I cannot just go and take it back myself if I find out where it is - mainly as there was only ever 1 set of keys for it!
Timbo
It's a long story which I'll shorten - Back in year 2000 my Jaguar car went into a garage for restoration which the owner said would cost £400 and take two weeks - since then the garage has kept saying what I've paid isn't enough and I'll need to pay more to get it back on the road, so I'd pay more money, then about 6 months later be told it actually needs more money spending on it so I'd pay more money and about 6 months later the same thing would happen again so I kept paying. It came to a bit of head in Feb 2006 when I asked him how much it would cost to finish it off and he quoted me £4000 so I paid him £4000 in the space of 4 weeks. By May the car had not been finished so I asked for it back as it was and his reply was that It owed him storage money so I couldn't have it back. In August my dad died abroad and I asked for the car back as someone would buy it off me as it was so I could use the money to possibly get my fathers body back and he still refused and walked off laughing saying he had his own problems. During this time the car 'storage' consisted of keeping it outside on farmland under a tarpaulin.
Over the next two years I kept asking when it would be finished and he told me it was in storage, when I asked to see it I got told I couldn't but it would look really nice when it was finished.
By October 2008 I was told by my best mate that he'd seen some really dodgy looking Jaguar garage near his girlfriends - So I drove down to where my car was to find the garage had gone! My mate said "it's not here, it's further down the road" and about 5 miles down the road I found it, the garage owner had moved without telling me. At this point I probably done something I shouldn't have - I put a page up on the internet warning people to be wary of him going on what had happened to my car but I took it down about a week later after thinking about it and then rang the garage owner up and told him I'd report my car stolen as I hadn't seen my car for two years and he then agreed for me to see it and admitted he'd moved address it. After showing it was still in existence I then paid another £1250 over 3 months (from November 2008 to Feb 2009) but every time I saw the car it didn't look any different - he pointed out twice how he'd changed the spark plugs etc and nothing had happened. I walked off in disgust after telling it need to be ready as I need it for commuting to work.
In October 2009 the garage owner rang me up ranting down the phone as he'd been told by a business partner about the internet page I put up - turns out it was still floating around the internet and he basically intimidated me down the phone into taking it off, even though I already had (it was cached by google somehow!).
Now this is the interesting bit - I haven't heard from him since 2009 and on the 11th Feb I got a letter from DVLA saying someone had applied to be the registered keeper of my car. I called DVLA who where as unhelpful as always so I went to local police who advised me to contact ring the garage owner while I was in the police station but both his phone numbers had been cut off so the police said they'd treat it as a stolen car. I went home, done some research around the internet and I've found why I haven't heard from the garage owner - back in 2013 he was jailed for 8 years for drug smuggling!!
Now the police officer dealing with it has said he'll do everything he can to get my car back but he seemed concerned that due to the amount of time I've been waiting for my car back it might become a civil case if he cannot prove criminal intent; I pointed out I was actually quite scared of the guy as he said one more than one occasion he knew a few nasty people and his incarceration proves that. Does anyone know where I stand with this? Aside from the money I paid for the work done on my jaguar that garage also sold me another car for £1200 while I was waiting for it to be finished off as I needed transport to work plus I've since had to purchase other cars for commuting to work, in total the amount I've spent is around £14,500 odd. Sadly I never got anything in writing from him about how much it would cost to get my car back on the road but I do still have my bank statements as luckily I paid most of it with cheques.
The garage in question changed name since 2009 and I guess was shut down after he was jailed (it's all boarded up as of Feb 2015) so I've no idea where my car is. The police officer in question is back on shift on 19th so by then he'll hopefully have found out where my car is or what might have happened to it. I guess I cannot just go and take it back myself if I find out where it is - mainly as there was only ever 1 set of keys for it!
Timbo
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