Last Thursday I was involved in a minor incident with another car. He, through inattention, drove into my car and put a biggish dent in the wing. His car was undamaged, mine will cost about £300 to rectify.
All very amicable, we exchanged details and both agreed probably not worth going the insurance route. He agreed it was his fault entirely. When I tried to ring him to tell him the cost, his phone number was unobtainable. I rang Directory Enquiries who said there was no phone registered to that name at the address he gave me.
His address is about 70 miles away, so I do'n't fancy the trip at this stage. I'll write to that address with the quote, but obviously I'm not hopeful. I do have his car registration number and he told me his insurance company was Churchill.
Assuming I don't get any response from the address, I'm looking for advice on the best way to proceed after that. I'll get the car repaired, but I would prefer him to pay rather than me.
Thanks in advance.
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Phone the police and report the incident immediately.
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i would go to the police front desk wait my turn and explain the situation and ask them to do a vehicle check if you are decent they wil confirm or deny that the address is correct.
This way if it is false then there will be a police interest as it is leaving the scene of an accident while giving false details and a false instument to boot ( a pen) ,ive always wanted to say that.
i reported a car as having been dumped outside my house this past weekend (untaxed) the dvla website was down sat/sun so first job monday morning i filled in the details to the dvla and then rang the local police they confirmed there was no police interest in it and also gave me a crime number and told me that a police car would investigate the car within 4 hours of my call
and they did but it had gone 10/10 from me.
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sorry chedder so busy typing with one finger you beat me
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Nasty swine! Did you take photos of the cars and the damage? If so you are in a better position as you have concrete proof that car stopped so it makes any lie they tell later look bad. Have you tried BT's website and their phone number lookup? There are reverse lookup services and they might bear fruit. Is there any way the number could be written incorrectly? Any of the online name/address lookup services would be worth a trawl. Ditto the DVLA on the plate he gave. That might further flush out whether he gave a false name & address and thought you'd be too dim to find with the plate or whether the car is cloned/under a false registration.
T'internet being what it is it might be worth saying the rough area of where this person lives and someone local might spot the same car and report back.
Have you rung up churchill to see whether he is insured with them? He'd have to tell them he had a bump anyway regardless of whether you claimed. Again doing this might flush him out as you can tell them to tell him that you tried to call to say what the cost would be but the number was unobtainable so you tried the insurance company as the next point of contact.
teabelly
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Voter's List initially, try online service as mentioned above.
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Assuming you have the correct name use this free and truly frightening website.
www.b4usearch.com/
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Thommo, unfortuantely a lot of the info on that site is out of date. It still lists neighbours of mine, and other people in my local area, who moved away over 3 yrs ago..
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I hate to say this Alfafan but you are clearly not dealing with an honest reliable individual - but then you knew that.
Do you have legal protection on your insurance cover.
If so IMO this will be the easiset and stress free option for you.
The solicitors the insurance company employ are pretty good at tracking these people down.
I had a similar thing happen to me - once the solictors got involved it was back to plan A for him and he settled outside the insurance system.
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Thommo, unfortuantely a lot of the info on that site is out of date. It still lists neighbours of mine, and other people in my local area, who moved away over 3 yrs ago..
Suspect that's the result of the recent changes to availability of the electoral roll. Even so, searching my name in a market town with a 200,000 population went straight to my name address and linked me with SWMBO (who does not share my surname).
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You can get yourself removed from it. To do it on line they want your e mail and home and mobile phone numbers which doesn't seem to be a good way to your info OFF a site! I wrote to them and got a letter and was off the site wihing24 hours.
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Alfafan you have my sympathy. A plausible young lady ran into the Focus in May. Causing superficial (I thought) damage. We swapped details, and I said I would not proceed unless garage report said otherwise.
Some days later, I got the car checked out, and it transpired there WAS damage to the suspension (anti roll bar iirc) so it was booked in - never mind thinks I, will get £250 excess back off her (or her insurer).
Imagine how completely hacked off I was to find that 1. No such person at address or phone number given 2. No such vehicle insured at that address.
To rub salt into the £250 wound, I never got round to protecting my 11 year ncb - can't wait for renewal time ;(
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With hindsight, photos at the scene of the crash to include the other driver.
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Its back to the suggestion that keeps rearing its head in cases like this - always carry a disposable camera in the car.
Handy for occasions like this.
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Just out of curiosity.
If I have a bump in car and phone the police I am guessing they probably won't be interested if no one is hurt and roads aren't being blocked?
What if I phone them and say the other person who has hit me says his name is x, he lives in y and his registration is z. Will the police verify anything to me, even down to saying that the registered keeper is the same name as you have been given?
Surely the role of police is crime prevention so anything they could tell you at this stage to prevent a crime happening would be helpful?
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The police have had to give up to an extent and can only concern themselves with crime reduction. In the circumstances you describe, BobbyG, a crime has already taken place so it is already too late for them to prevent it. This is not an anti-police rant BTW; it is a sort of Trades Description Act thing - they can't prevent crime 100% so thay have to call what they do crime reduction.
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