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TLDR; 69 year old woman got her caravan stolen, is now homeless. Need advice on housing and how to go forward with the case legally.
Hi all, I’m looking for legal advice for a friend of mine and was hoping you all could help. This may be a bit of a long one as there is a lot of information and it’s a bit of a complex situation. This may not be the exact exact story down to the detail, but this is the gist of what I’ve gathered. She is not very good with computers and I don’t think she’d understand these forums enough to write it here and she’s very… persistent in how she wants this story written. You’ll get a better idea if you read until the end. I've crossposted this on different website forums.
So I work in a charity shop in England and met my friend through my job as she began volunteering with us. She is a 69 year old woman, we’ll call her Evie.
Evie has no fixed abode, and used to live in her caravan. In 2019, she left her caravan on a site owned by someone that was recommended to her by friends, we’ll call the owner Jack. Jack was friendly to Evie and allowed her to pay for leaving her caravan on her site in cash, and often told her to not bother paying him as they were “friends”. She told Jack she would be travelling to India and he said he could leave her caravan with him. She has and had no insurance on this caravan, no idea why, I’m guessing she just felt like she didn’t need it as it wasn’t supposed to be going anywhere.
From 2019 to early 2022 she got stuck in India due to the pandemic, lack of funds to return etc. Basically no way to return to England. She had a friend of hers check up on the caravan every so often, where it was still visible on the site. As far as I’m aware, the last time her friend checked up on it, the engineer working on it confirmed the owner ordered an M.O.T for it, and was confused as he thought Evie had died in India. The friend confirmed that no, Evie was very much alive, and was returning eventually. Throughout this time in India she would call him, text him, email him etc. With no response.
On return, Evie went to retrieve her caravan and Jack told her he sold it. She went to the police and filed a report with them. The initial investigation was closed quite quickly and the conclusion was that it they considered it a civil case, not theft. Evie filed a complaint to appeal this decision, of which she also spoke to her local M.P.
The local M.P. contacted her police branch and the case was re-opened with a different investigating officer. During this new investigation, it was found that:
“The vehicle had remained on site for a significant period of time. No contact was received from the owner, yourself. The owner was believed to be deceased and with no other details known for family. The vehicle was not disposed of immediately since Jack simply did not know what to do. He did not take any action around the disposal of the vehicle for a significant period of time. No payment was made for the vehicle remaining on site. Jack assumed the rights of the owner on the basis of there being no known owner and with it having remained on his site for a lengthy period of time. An opportunity to dispose of the vehicle arose -which was apparently not planned since the male concerned had not attended for the purpose of purchasing the vehicle -and he exercised what he believed was his right. On this basis, the original decision around the matter being believed to be a civil matter was communicated to you and the matter was accepted for cancellation as a crime.”
I can understand where the police are coming from, however this leaves us with a few problems – first, Evie is currently homeless and couch surfing in my flat. She was living with her son originally, however tensions rose between the two and I offered her my flat as I have my family I can stay with for the time being with no issues. I’m trying to explain to her about social housing but she’s both terrified of being put in a care home and of being “stuck in England”. I keep trying to explain to her that social housing and housing credit etc. isn’t permanent but she isn’t getting it so if anyone has any advice on that, it would be appreciated.
Second, where do we go from here legally? I have tried contacting the local university’s law teams about the situation but haven’t had a response as of yet. According to the gov. website, she may not be applicable for legal aid, which doesn’t work out well as she is living hand to mouth off of her pension and can’t afford a lawyer. She says she has contacted local law firms with the 30 minute free advice line and they suggested it be a criminal case and there was nothing they could do, although this was before the closure of the investigation, so this may be different now.
Even if we could afford a lawyer, would we have a case? She’s very insistent on the path that this is a criminal case whereas I’m more for that we should go for civil at this point as the police have already closed this path off. Unfortunately, she’s convinced that the police have blocked her (she typed the emails in wrong and won’t believe me, I have evidence of this) and she’s better off going to the media and “spreading her message”. I want to prevent her making a fool of herself and just want her some justice, hence why I wrote this without telling her as she would insist on telling everyone on how the police mistreated her. Not that I disagree that I wish they could have done more, but I’m more focused on how to help her right now.
Sorry if I sound harsh or uninformed, I’m just stressed and I’ll be honest, we both know nothing about the law, so I’m just trying to do my best for someone who’s had everything taken from her. But it’s getting to the point where I have no clue where to go. Any advice would be much appreciated, thank you.
If it helps, we live in Yorkshire, I’m worried about being too specific in case someone informs her that I’ve “posted her case online”.
Hi all, I’m looking for legal advice for a friend of mine and was hoping you all could help. This may be a bit of a long one as there is a lot of information and it’s a bit of a complex situation. This may not be the exact exact story down to the detail, but this is the gist of what I’ve gathered. She is not very good with computers and I don’t think she’d understand these forums enough to write it here and she’s very… persistent in how she wants this story written. You’ll get a better idea if you read until the end. I've crossposted this on different website forums.
So I work in a charity shop in England and met my friend through my job as she began volunteering with us. She is a 69 year old woman, we’ll call her Evie.
Evie has no fixed abode, and used to live in her caravan. In 2019, she left her caravan on a site owned by someone that was recommended to her by friends, we’ll call the owner Jack. Jack was friendly to Evie and allowed her to pay for leaving her caravan on her site in cash, and often told her to not bother paying him as they were “friends”. She told Jack she would be travelling to India and he said he could leave her caravan with him. She has and had no insurance on this caravan, no idea why, I’m guessing she just felt like she didn’t need it as it wasn’t supposed to be going anywhere.
From 2019 to early 2022 she got stuck in India due to the pandemic, lack of funds to return etc. Basically no way to return to England. She had a friend of hers check up on the caravan every so often, where it was still visible on the site. As far as I’m aware, the last time her friend checked up on it, the engineer working on it confirmed the owner ordered an M.O.T for it, and was confused as he thought Evie had died in India. The friend confirmed that no, Evie was very much alive, and was returning eventually. Throughout this time in India she would call him, text him, email him etc. With no response.
On return, Evie went to retrieve her caravan and Jack told her he sold it. She went to the police and filed a report with them. The initial investigation was closed quite quickly and the conclusion was that it they considered it a civil case, not theft. Evie filed a complaint to appeal this decision, of which she also spoke to her local M.P.
The local M.P. contacted her police branch and the case was re-opened with a different investigating officer. During this new investigation, it was found that:
- Jack lied to the police about how much he sold the caravan for. He told them it was £700, but it turns out it was £11,000
- Using Evie’s information, Jack ordered a new logbook for the vehicle and changed the address on it to match his address without her consent.
- He thought it belonged to him as he assumed Evie was dead
- She owed him £450 in rent as her caravan remained on his site whilst she was away
- The dealer came to look over some other caravans and just coincidentally offered to buy it
“The vehicle had remained on site for a significant period of time. No contact was received from the owner, yourself. The owner was believed to be deceased and with no other details known for family. The vehicle was not disposed of immediately since Jack simply did not know what to do. He did not take any action around the disposal of the vehicle for a significant period of time. No payment was made for the vehicle remaining on site. Jack assumed the rights of the owner on the basis of there being no known owner and with it having remained on his site for a lengthy period of time. An opportunity to dispose of the vehicle arose -which was apparently not planned since the male concerned had not attended for the purpose of purchasing the vehicle -and he exercised what he believed was his right. On this basis, the original decision around the matter being believed to be a civil matter was communicated to you and the matter was accepted for cancellation as a crime.”
I can understand where the police are coming from, however this leaves us with a few problems – first, Evie is currently homeless and couch surfing in my flat. She was living with her son originally, however tensions rose between the two and I offered her my flat as I have my family I can stay with for the time being with no issues. I’m trying to explain to her about social housing but she’s both terrified of being put in a care home and of being “stuck in England”. I keep trying to explain to her that social housing and housing credit etc. isn’t permanent but she isn’t getting it so if anyone has any advice on that, it would be appreciated.
Second, where do we go from here legally? I have tried contacting the local university’s law teams about the situation but haven’t had a response as of yet. According to the gov. website, she may not be applicable for legal aid, which doesn’t work out well as she is living hand to mouth off of her pension and can’t afford a lawyer. She says she has contacted local law firms with the 30 minute free advice line and they suggested it be a criminal case and there was nothing they could do, although this was before the closure of the investigation, so this may be different now.
Even if we could afford a lawyer, would we have a case? She’s very insistent on the path that this is a criminal case whereas I’m more for that we should go for civil at this point as the police have already closed this path off. Unfortunately, she’s convinced that the police have blocked her (she typed the emails in wrong and won’t believe me, I have evidence of this) and she’s better off going to the media and “spreading her message”. I want to prevent her making a fool of herself and just want her some justice, hence why I wrote this without telling her as she would insist on telling everyone on how the police mistreated her. Not that I disagree that I wish they could have done more, but I’m more focused on how to help her right now.
Sorry if I sound harsh or uninformed, I’m just stressed and I’ll be honest, we both know nothing about the law, so I’m just trying to do my best for someone who’s had everything taken from her. But it’s getting to the point where I have no clue where to go. Any advice would be much appreciated, thank you.
If it helps, we live in Yorkshire, I’m worried about being too specific in case someone informs her that I’ve “posted her case online”.
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