My car was written off by a hit and run lorry as you will read on recent posts. This is a related but seperate issue.

As lorry was driving off I tried to get registration, make, colour. Police have been great, ran a search and informed all details tallied, lorry was insured and notice of prosecution has been served. Full marks to Avon and Somerset Police for all the quick responses.

The legal folk with my legal protection policy have tried three different ways to cancel the claim in less than 3 weeks. The first one was the Data Protection Act and it went like this.

"do you have the name of the registered keeper of the lorry, and the name of the driver?"

Of course I do not because it was a hit and run.

In that case we cannot help you.

But you have the registration,make, colour and a data base telling you it is insured with Aviva so go after Aviva with the claim.

If we contact Aviva they will ask for these details and if not given they will refuse to co-operate. All insurers agree to this because we all wish to minimise claims and administration. We do this, it is a mechanism to thwart claims. We say it is the Data Protection Act. It is the system we all operate.

So the driver did the right thing by not stopping and giving his details?

From an insurance perspective of course he did. Provided he gets away with it we will be grateful for the work he may have saved

So get the details from the police.

We are very sorry, it is the Data Protection Act-we cannot do that.

Back to Avon and Somerset Police who confirmed the above procedure.

All is not lost, there is a mechanism toget back to the insurers, but it takes time. This, of course, is what the insurers rely on, Genuine claimants give up the will to keep fighting.

In the interests of a balanced arguement I believe it would not be appropriate to mention who I am insured with.