Help Stolen Seized Car

[madmackie]

hi all this is my first post and what a post it is

I recently bought a car advertised in the Auto trader my wife and i went to view it and test drive.
We agreed a price with the seller went into what we thought was his house left a deposit
I went back with my brother and father to collect the car 5 days later at the same address went not the house again and paid for the car

4 days later it was seized by the police as it was a stolen vehicle that had been cloned

we had an hpi report done etc which was all clear as it would be being cloned so we have lost our car and all our savings £11000

myself and the police have been back to the address but he doesn't live there the family who do claim they don't know him yet he had keys to get into their house
The v5 doc was false along with the tax disc also the receipt which had his name and driving license number also turned out to be false all the Vin numbers had been changed etc.
i was told i cold go to court to an inter pleader hearing to see if i can get the car back however i have now received a letter from GMP solicitors saying that Direct line insurance can establish a better title to the car than myself due to a house of lords judgment
the police say they intend to release the vehicle back to direct line within 14 days
i can still go to court at a cost to myself and direct line of £150 each but they have advised me i will almost certainly loose and would incur further costs which i find ludicrous

my wife and i are completely innocent we bought the car as we thought was legitimate we have no way of recompense and have l;lost all our money can anyone advise me here as all doors seem to be closing fast and i cant even find a solicitor who deals with this sort of thing any views would be welcome i just want to try to get some answers thanks in advance Pete

[Guest]

Re: Help Stolen Seized Car

HPI offer a guarantee, which is subject to the HPI Guarantee Terms & Conditions and provides up to £30,000(£15,000 for written off vehicles) reimbursement of financial loss you suffer arising from inaccurate or incomplete information they supply to you as part of the HPI Check.

You should check to see if your report is covered and if it is, then make your claim against HPI.

Interpleader proceedings are unlikely to be very helpful, since you cannot establish good title to the car.

[madmackie]

Re: Help Stolen Seized Car

the hpi company will not entertain a claim as the details i gave them ie the cloned reg etc the information held was true and accurate for the reg and vin numbers

however if i had given tham the original reg number which of course i only found out once the car was seized then it would have flagged up that the car was stolen
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would you advise against inter pleader ?? thanks pete

[Guest]

Re: Help Stolen Seized Car

Interpleader proceedings can be expensive, because if the Court decides that Direct Line own the car, then you, as the person disputing the claim, will be responsible for their legal costs. Even if you win and the Court agrees that the car belongs to you, you will still have your own legal costs to pay.

In short, you have no legal right to the car and it now belongs to Direct Line. This is because, where stolen goods are sold on, the law has to decide whether it should protect the original owner or the honest purchaser and with only limited exceptions the law chooses to protect the former. The purchaser, however honest, cannot acquire a good title unless the seller had it to sell and there is no good faith doctrine in English law that applies here. The car thus legally belongs to the original owner, or as in this case, title is transferred to to the insurance company as they paid out the original owner's claim.

You may be able to deal with Direct Line, depending on how much they paid out to the original owner when the car was stolen, but this is not going to help you with the money you have lost so far. You will have a claim for all your losses against the seller, if he is ever found.

Finally, how did you actually pay for the car?

[WendyB]

Re: Help Stolen Seized Car

Is there any way of tracing the crook through the Autotrader?

[madmackie]

Re: Help Stolen Seized Car

i paid cash for the car as he told us the car was being sold on behalf of his mother hazel Lloyd (he was called Michael Lloyd supposedly ) the car we bought on the reg number we thought which was on the V5 document as Mrs hazel Lloyd
the police don't believe that the couple in the house didn't know this man also the neighbor was sat on the step and spoke to this person as mike and said he knew him well . he has disappeared but is know to the police but he is now denying he knows " Michael" also the police are checking with auto trader and with various telephone networks also they are trying to find the car which ours was cloned too who knows !!

it just seems to be taking an awful long time as it isn't deemed a big enough crime to be passed to CID it is being dealt with by a uniform response officer with just 2 years service
it may take forever at this rate !!!

[Guest]

Re: Help Stolen Seized Car

Sadly this is "just" fraud and deception and doubtless the police believe they have bigger fish to fry.

If the police do not release the car to Direct Line you may be able to have it released to you, since under the Police (Property) Act 1897 you have greater title than the police do. Having said that, since GMP solicitors have already confirmed that Direct Line can establish title, this may not prove to be useful. What is the authority that they state in their letter to you leading you to conclude that Direct Line's rights are superior to yours?

There exists The Police Property Act Fund and this was established under statute to deal with money and other property that comes into the possession of the Police in connection with criminal charges. After twelve months this property can then be sold with the proceeds being retained by the police. Before accepting that the car will be released to Direct Line, I would suggest that you would want to establish that they do have a right of possession.

Finally, I would telephone the police daily if necessary to ensure that they are giving this the attention it deserves.