Oh Focer font of legal/insurance knowledge - any police about?

[HarryHornby]

Hi All,


Last week someone put a call into the police to say something had fallen off our car and damaged their car.  Before they called the police they tried to make my wife pull over by driving very dangerously, flashing lights, driving up her boot and generally scaring her and the kids in our car.  So being concerned and not knowing what was going on she went to the police to report it and that's when she learnt that they felt something had come off our car and hit theirs.


A police lady gave our car a quick once over and could find nothing obvious


We can find nothing obvious


Where do we stand on this?  Apparently the chap is still keen to take this via the insurance.  We as yet don't know what he thinks fell off or what damage was done.  The police called today to discuss, but my wife hasn't had chance to chat to them as yet.


Any ideas?  Surely he has to prove the the item (whatever it was) was off our car??


Cheers guys

[Bretty]

Sounds like a scam to me.  The balls in their court to prove either way, surely?!
 

[fazersharp]

Thats right I would of thought they canot proove it came off your car and even a a copper examined your car and found nothing missing.

Whatever it was could of been either flicked up by your car already on the road or come off a car or flicked up by a car combing in the opposite direction.

And WTF them ringing the police to report that, they should be done for wasting police time. 

[HarryHornby]

I'm guessing, the only way this can go anywhere is if they either have 100% video evidence of something coming off, OR they have gone back, found something on the roadside and can prove it came from our car?

[BBROWN1664]

with those above

They need to state what fell off your car so you can agree or dispute it.

[HarryHornby]

Wife has spoken to police, she now has his name and address and apparently he had already been given ours by the police.  I'm going to go and see him tonight and ask to see the damage and ask him what he felt it was that had hit his car and go from there.  I'm tempted to take my fake go-pro and record it, especially as he drove very aggressively when trying to make my wife stop.  But I don't want to pee him off right from the start, I need to get him on my side that nothing to the best of our knowledge fell off and there is no negligence on my part.


Police said very unlikely to be a scam because they did contact the police to say it had happened, if it was a scam they would have tried to make my wife stop and then just drive if not.


As far as police are concerned it's out of their hands now.


The sad thing is there is nothing they can do about him driving in a dangerous way because it is our word against his.  A little like the question about something falling off our car.

[BBROWN1664]

Unless he can say what fell off your car, he is unlikely to get anywhere with the insurance.
Your company may roll over and pay out unless you forewarn them though and at the same time, if you don't contact your insurance company they may get nasty and cancel your policy or put a marker against on the insurance database to say you have not declared claims. My brother got done like this a while ago. Funny thing with my brothers claim was he did try to claim but they said no, your not insured, then updated their systems to say they had paid out to him. Muppets.

[slappy]

Surely it cannot be right that the police have given your address to the other driver and vice versa?

[BBROWN1664]

They can give those details as it is an insurance claim that's required.
That said, if the other driver has your reg number, they just tell their insurance company that ABC123 failed to stop and the insurance company will have access to the information anyway including the details of your insurer.

[Skippernick]

Wife has spoken to police, she now has his name and address and apparently he had already been given ours by the police.  I'm going to go and see him tonight and ask to see the damage and ask him what he felt it was that had hit his car and go from there.  I'm tempted to take my fake go-pro and record it, especially as he drove very aggressively when trying to make my wife stop.  But I don't want to pee him off right from the start, I need to get him on my side that nothing to the best of our knowledge fell off and there is no negligence on my part.


Police said very unlikely to be a scam because they did contact the police to say it had happened, if it was a scam they would have tried to make my wife stop and then just drive if not.


As far as police are concerned it's out of their hands now.


The sad thing is there is nothing they can do about him driving in a dangerous way because it is our word against his.  A little like the question about something falling off our car.

Take an independent witness instead.

[HarryHornby]

Update, I popped round after work, he wasn't there but spoke to his wife who let me speak to him on the phone.  They both seemed to go on the mild attack straight away.  He was asking what right I had to go round his house when the insurance were dealing with it.  I answered that my insurance advised me  to do so (should I wish to keep it out of the insurance) and so did the police.


He admitted on the phone he has no idea what came off my car only that something did.  Apparently he had only just had the front resprayed and that's why he is so annoyed, apparently there is now a nick on the bottom of the bumper.


I'm going round again later to speak to him and see what he's on about.


Also, if it's on the underside of the bumper how does he know this alleged piece off my car hit right there.


Personally I think I should let him go down the insurance and let them deal with it.  As far as I am concerned we get the car serviced when needed and keep it in good state of repair.


Reckon I should take a pal or is that intimidation?

[Robgosty]

Personally I would go on my own but record conversation on phone

[HarryHornby]

Spoke to insurance, they said without proof he has no claim. Apparfently I did the right thing calling them because it could have gone against me, cheers for the advice earlier on that one. 


I said I might pop round tonight and she said probably no need, she has all she needs to defend me, she didn't advise not to but said if he was aggressive in the car and then a bit spikey to me on the phone to leave it to the insurers just incase it gets complicated with him kicking off.


So, I'm going to leave it to the insurers.  He will have to stump up his excess in order to get the repair done and then it gets assessed as to who is liable for the bill so that alone might put him off.


The only thing she said I could do is wander past his drive (on the pavement) and take a pic of the front of his car just to show no significant damage.


Cheers guys, hopefully this won't go against us.  Purely because of the way he intimidated my wife on the road I hope he gets nothing out of it.

[sadlonelygit]

don;t be surprised when your premium increases next year

[HarryHornby]

don;t be surprised when your premium increases next year

No, I'm fully expecting it, the thieving so and sos.....

[mtread]

Might not have been something that 'came off' your car. Might well have been something in the road that your tyre threw up, or even something else that just bounced off your car and hit his. As others have said, he has to prove it by producing the item (a matching wing mirror or whatever). If he gets shirty, you might want to mention you've reported his dangerous driving to the police (even if they aren't doing anything about it).


Having said that, years ago after repairing my car I left a rechargeable screwdriver on my roof, and when I stopped at the first T junction nearly murdered a bus queue 

[lew600fazer]

Obvious question here , why did you not take your own car to a dealer/garage and ask them to look over the car for anything that may have dropped off or is missing?If they say your car is in good order present him with the bill

[midden]

Personally I wouldn't have entertained the nutter but surely if the damage is to the front of his car while driving he's hit you from behind.  Oh no there wasn't any contact it's a stone chip.  Imagine chasing all those lorry drivers who've cracked a windscreen.
He should have comprehensive for this sort of thing

[fazersharp]

This bloke sounds like a complete nob twat
A couple of years ago a tractor with crap and mud all over the tyres going in the other direction a stone flung off and chipped my window screen, did I do a handbrake turn and chase him down - no of course not because I would have no proof whatsoever that it was his tyres 

[Fazer99]

The police gave the wrong info about it being a scam as scammers do go to the police in order to try and make it look legitimate, and they all say "I've only just had my bumper sprayed" it's a stupid tactic to try and make you feel guilty. Had some stupid woman years back when I first started riding try that on me, I came off my little YB100 due to slippery roads and she was a good 2 meters away from where the bike was lead, so nowhere near her, she got stumped when I gave her a business card for the car and motorcycle bodyshop I worked for at the time 

[maddog04]

as other have said......fuck him off he's taking the piss intentionally or unintentionally if he believes it came off your car
Do be warned tho that insurers are twats who will pay out then load your premium, some years back my lad was scammed after the most minor of bumps and 2 twats claimed allsorts. As a fireman I have extensive knowledge of crash kinematics/injuries and presented this to my insurance investigator who agreed with everything I said. Son saw the insurance QC but the insurance bottled it and said if we agree 50/50 blame then we only pay 50% where if it goes the other way in court we pay the lot. They played the % game and the scammers won

also, they sent an assessor to look at damage to our car.....there was none in my eyes but he said there was damage underneath......could've been done years back but no way of proving it either way so the report stated damage to our car

Bastards the lot of them, I wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire