General Chat

I was going to comment on this but it's much less stressful to keep banging my head against the wall!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2381292/Police-let-gypsy-family-stay-couples-30-000-stolen-caravan-moving-breach-human-rights.html


Mayfield
Bang, Bang, Bang............................................

No need at all to resort to head banging.

They have plenty of remedies available although I would have thought they would have claimed on insurance by now. Not insured? Bad move.

The easiest line of action is to get judgement in the County Court. The caravan squatters will ignore this. They will then need to get a writ of enforcement from the High Court ( under £ 100 ).

The writ will be enforced by the High Court sheriffs who are large beefy people armed with trailers and such who will be able to get their caravan back no sweat.
The Sheriffs give no notice whatsoever of their arrival.

Interestingly the police cannot help the Sheriffs but are bound to prevent other people from obstructing the sheriffs.

None of the civil procedures are blocked by "human rights".

Since the police force was set up by John Peel it has NOT being able to proactively involve itself with recovery of stolen goods, evicting squatters and so on. This was with good cause as the main two functions of the police were seen to be the enforcement of the criminal law and keeping the peace. Keeping the peace was and is the more important of the two.

Recent changes in the law allow the police to evict squatters from residential but not commercial property.

I saw this in my Aunts paper this morning Mayfield. She was banging her head against the wall as well so to speak.

I feel very sorry for the owners and feel that the law can be very strange and unfair........... but and its a big but, why oh why were they not insured :-S £30,000 worth of caravan and contents is a huge sum of money. We have always insured our caravan. A stolen caravan, an accident on the motorway, a fire. These things often occur and should be insured against.

Please don't think that I condone the theft of this couples caravan, I don't, and I do think something should be done about it, but for the sake of an insurance premium they may have been able to claim against it when it was first stolen.

I do agree the question of insurance was the first thing I thought of and frankly would you want the caravan back! Still even if they have been silly in not covering it you do have to feel sorry for them.

What buggs me is we see so many times reports of somebody that has quite innocently bought a ringed stolen car and it is snatched away from them, but these people cannot retrive their property.

I know what you mean Mayfield, and I really don't think I would want the caravan back, not for any other reason than its a home from home when you are away in a caravan. Someone else is now in their home. If it was me and I did get it back it would never feel the same and I would have to sell it.

Sad that the couple hadn't set up new insurance but the fact remains that those people should not be allowed to keep the van.

It boils down to the fact that the police are scared of gypsies.

My sister in law had a baby equipment/wear company and one night it was ramraided and lots of buggies and other items stolen. A warning had to be put out for people not to buy them as there would be glass in the fabric etc from the broken windows of the showroom and it could be dangerous for children.

However, someone in a neighbouring unit (it was on an industrial site out of the city) got the van number. It was traced or known to be a van used by gypsies. The police would not attend the gypsy site as they said there would be too many of the gypsies there and they wouldn't stand a chance of searching the place or checking the van, in other words they were scared to upset the gypsies.

This has happened more than once around this area.
A crazy and ridiculous situation and it doesn't encourage confidence in the police force.

I would be spitting feathers and would take this further with the Police Commission or whoever it is we lowly Joe Public people complain to when we aren't happy with the performance of a force that is paid for out of our taxes.

Lizx

Ringed motors, as with most things buyer beware.

By and large a tasty motor well below the going price should ring alarm bells. I don't really see why anybody should feel sorry for those that get taken. If they cannot look after themselves in the jungle of motor vehicles then they should go to a franchised dealer.

There are basically three favored scams. The last one has caused some real angst so I leave it for last.

Don't trust paperwork. The new MOT is a doddle to fake. The DVLC had a big load of blank V5s nobbled and have only recovered about 20%. They should have voided the current format and reissued but they didn't. If a service history is offered check it out with the dealer - fake service books can be bought online no trouble together with stamps etc.

(a) Subject to credit or court order

The seller has the V5, even documentation and everything appears to be in order. If the car is subject to an unpaid loan or is listed for recovery by a baliiff then the buyer will not get good title. This is easy enough to avoid by getting an HPC check.

(b) Ringing.

The easiest way of detecting this is to look at the inside of the car where the windscreen meets the bodywork. There is a copy of the VIN number which ringers rarely remember to clone and in any case it is v difficult to do. Look very carefully at the other VIN and engine numbers and see if they can be removed. It should be impossible. New number plates without the usual garage name etc should also be a reason for caution.

(c) There are other countries in the world which drive on the right including Japan and South Africa. There is a thriving theft network in S.A. and Japan stealing high end cars ( esp 4WD and beemers ) and shipping them to the UK. This has caused a lot of doom and disaster even for people who thought they were well clued up..

4WIW plenty of UK vehicles of the same type end up in north Cyprus, S.A., Zimbabwe, Kenya and west Africa.

:-(

IN THE PAST POLICE HAVE VISITED HOLIDAY PARKS LOOKING
FOR STOLEN CARAVANS BOUGHT BY HOLIDAY MAKERS ,
IF FOUND THEY WERE SIEZED INSTANTLY LEAVING FAMILIES
BROKE AND STRANDED WITH BELONGINGS LEFT OUTSIDE,THEY
DONT GET THEIR MONEY THEY PAID FOR VAN BACK