Advice re. hit and run?

[Johnny C]

I parked in the short-stay carpark at the airport recently. When I got back, some toerag had reversed into it. Bumper has chips, but is repairable. Rear orange panel is borken (£200+) and spolier is split along the back edge (it's a fixed RS spoiler) which is £2k+.

Some kind chap has left a note saying he witnessed it, and las left the reg of the car that hit it and his phone number. I reported it to the police on the airport straight away, but they said it will take ages to get investigated as no-one was hurt, and by then the owner may have sold the car on or claim they can't remember who was driving it. I need to speak to the witness tonight to see what he saw, could he identify anyone. There's CCTV in the car park but whether the fuzz will bother with it I don't know. I'm not holding out too much hope on theie insurance paying out - partly for the reasons above but also it was a V reg peugot (i.e. cheap and scrap value only probably) which makes me suspect they weren't insured.

A mate had a devil of a problem with a similar hit&run, took the police 6 months to even visit the car whoo wrecked his (and their reg plate had fallen off in the accident!).

So, I'm in a bit of a conundrum. If they aren't insured, then I'm sure it can be repaired for a lot less than replacement of the spoiler/bumper. If of course the Police can track the culprit down and I can claim on their insurance, then I'll go for full replacement of bumber/spoiler/orange plate. If not, then I have two choices - use my insurance (Privilege, fully comp, no-claims protected) for full replacement and face a hike in future costs, or pay for a repair job myself and leave the insurance out of it.

Has anyone had anything like this happen before, and does anyone know what the impact on my insurance is likely to be in the future? I've full no claims and never had a claim where I was at fault.

I'm tempted to report the claim, as I know that insurance companies are better at taking out private prosecutions in the case of hit&runs and especially where there is no insurance on their part. But if there's no chance of recovering costs and the cost of repair will be a few hundred quid plus the orange plate, then I don't want to be paying a few hundred quid for the next few years in insurance premiums (as I know that despite the full no-claims they'll hike the cost up)

TIA for any advice/experience

 

[John Maddox]

Very sorry to hear this - I recall reading somewhere, if you have proper cause, you can request the details of the owner from the DVLC and then sue in the small claims court. I think it was on the Daily Telegraph "Honest John" column. try putting honest john in google and search his web pages.

Personally I would let my insurance handle this but it may be worth a solicitors letter ??

Best of luck

 

[spyderman]

You can certainly look up who the vehicle is registered to (providing you have both the registration number and make), but not who was driving!

Go to http://www.taxdisc.direct.gov.uk/
...and click Vehicle Enquiry from the signs on the left.

 

[3.2_fordy]

Johnny a lot of years ago I had a toerag run into the back of one of my cars he had stolen his dads car so no insurance no license etc and then he tried to do a runner in the car to top it off a friendly off duty cop and the police caught him , They charged him with a few things to long to list but he had no money so it would of been 10p a week so I claimed from my insurance it tuck me about 6 years to get the stigma attached to that claim off I had my no-claims protected as well so could not change companys unless I had a hefty hike in my policy
So I would work out how much it`s going to cost you, what you will be happy with (type of repair new or repaired ) etc and then think what it will cost you over 6 years insurance hike`s .
I would never claim under £1000 now

 

[Johnny C]

That link to the DVLA is handy - I will check it tonight. The Cops told me that under data protection I couldn't find out who has insured it, but this may be a starter for 10 - even if they sell it quick the DVLA won't be updated that quick with postage delay etc. If I can find out where they live (and I have the means at work) then I can give the details to my insurance company.

I need to talk to the witness too, he may be able to narrow it to colour, sex, height (approx) etc if the person got out to check their own car or the witness saw them driving. The cops said it would make life easier in gfetting a charge to stick if that happened. I will also check with the short-stay carpark people, they took incident details and I'd be surprised if they didn't have CCTV of drivers entering/departing the car park. So if I've got the time to within a few mins and the car make/colour/reg they may have a picture of the driver.

Thanks, any more advice also gratefully received.

If it's an insurance job then they can replace the lot, I'll get my money's worth from the hikes over the next 5 years!

 

[clyde]

ORIGINAL: spyderman

You can certainly look up who the vehicle is registered to (providing you have both the registration number and make), but not who was driving!

Go to http://www.taxdisc.direct.gov.uk/
...and click Vehicle Enquiry from the signs on the left.

But that doesn't give you the owners name.

 

[Mark Elder]

Which airport? Glasgow logs every license plate (number recognition) into a database, and also have a camera pointing straight in the driver's window at you when you take your entry ticket, so I guess they can just type in the number and pull up a mug shot of every driver. They will probably want the police to ask them before they'll bother.

Glasgow is BAA, using NCP for parking, I assume they do similar at all such airports.

But, like others have said, not sure it's worth the hassle to find out it's uninsured.

Personally I'd not give my home address to the other driver (or maybe even the witness in case it's a stitch up).

Don't you just hate car parks. I'm stuck in a hotel in York right now, car park packed with Mondeos etc, evil place.

 

[Pickled Piper]

Have a chat with your i insurer without officially logging the claim. See what they can do.

Last time I was involved in an incident like this my insurance company advised they would pursue the registered keeper of the other vehicle. All they need was the reg and ideally a witness.

pp

 

[millisland]

If you belong to the AA or RAC, their legal department may be able to give you some advice. The AA were very helpful to me on one occasion and helped me recoup some money.

Harriet

 

[Johnny C]

Thanks for the advice. Just waiting on the two quotes and I'll see then. I always take a high excess, so if the repair is less than that I'll probably do that (if I can).

 

[juliany27]

Assuming that this sad event took place in England or Wales, I can confirm that failing to stop and failing to report an accident is a criminal offence and that, upon receipt of a complaint, the police must investigate properly.

The Magistrates' Courts treat these offences very seriously; a substantial fine with penalty points and probable disqualification. In addition, if the driver was insured, his or her insurance company would pay out normally pay out relatively swiftly.

My initial advice, keep on at the police to do their job properly - they should take a statement from you and obtain a copy of the CCTV evidence. Then chase up the registered owner asap.

 

[Johnny C]

It's in the hands of the police. As soon as they call and I can get a contact I'll badger them. The airport staff took a log of the incident, I'm told places like that keep their CCTV for 30 days or so. As soon as I can get hold of the witness (not answering hone, may be abroad still) I'll get a date and time and contact the aitport security. Even if the police don't follow it up, the insurance company probably will (when they see the estimate!)

The mate I referred to had his car wrecked by someone driving through a red light. Their numberplate came off. The police sort of followed it up until the bloke moved house then they lost interest. The insurance (Direct Line) however didn't, and got a successful private prosecution. It took 18 months but they didn't stop until they got him.

 

[Shane Hodges]

Glad to see this is moving forward Johnny. Just two quick points: Request the CCTV pictures yourself, asking them not to destroy them as they will be used as legal evidence. Waiting for the CPS or an appointed solicitor from your insurance Co. / AA to write a similar letter is highly likely to take more than 30 days and the CCTV will be gone forever. Secondly, I understand you are legally obliged to inform your insurance company if you have had an accident, even if you were not to blame and even if you are not going to claim .... there is then always a risk they will increase your premiums even if you don't claim (which is a tadge harsh).

 

[Johnny C]

On the last point, I've done that before - had a knock with my old 3.2 (i.e. rubber bumbers), no damage to mine (well half a fingernail's worth of paint), other party needed new door, wing, wheel, bonnet plus unseen damage inside). I notified the insurance saying I wasn't making a claim, but other party might as it was probably a 50:50, but they never claimed (they were motabolity and driver clearly wasn't disabled). I never heard a peep, and my premium didn't go up.

Am waiting for quotes from 9M this pm, will contact the insurance company then unless they can repair for less than the excess.

 

[AndyC]

To give you some hope, exactly the same thing happened to me with my X5. A guy across the road in a nearby office block saw the incident and bothered to walk across to put a note on my car.

I called my insurers (Privilege) and explained. They checked their insurance database and found that the other car's reg number was logged as insured. (simple as that) We agreed they'd pass on a message to the other party's insurers that we had witnesses and they could either put their hands up or I'd pursue the matters through the police and the courts. Damage was £500 and we agreed we'd try this or I'd pay myself as the cost was better than NCD loss.

2 weeks later, the other party did put their hands up and I have a nice new bumper courtesy of them. Privilege were great.

Best of luck

 

[Johnny C]

Thanks Andy. I've done as you did, phoned them up, given them the details. The other car was insured which makes life a lot easier! They've registered a claim but it's on hold, they will contact the other party's insurance and see if they can persuade them to cough up (which is a damn site easier with a witness), if they can then I'll proceed with the claim (for the £4k+ of work). It's not stopping me use the car, it will sport a nice piece of duct tape for a while but I can live with that. If for whatever reason it doesn't work out then I'll get it sorted myself and cancel the claim as the cost of a repair is just about the same as the NCD but will save the grief in years to come, but hopefully it won't come to a court case.

I've tried to contact the witness but so far no joy, but then they might be out of the country as it was in the airport carpark.