Wrongly Accused of Car Accident (in east dulwich)

[brewski]

Hi

Has anyone got experience of being wrongly accused of being in a car accident. My boyfriend has been accused of hitting another car in east dulwich but he did not. There is no damage to his car but they have registration number and car details. If anyone has any experience of this sort of thing i would be grateful for your advice.

Thanks

[silverfox]

What are the facts here?

[Huggers]

this happened to me today. I parked near Peckham rye park, edging into a space, my bumper touched the car's bumper behind- not tapped it but touched it-i had perfect clutch control. A man suddenly appeared demanding my insurance details and pointed at his bumper saying I had bent it. Well I had not. And there was no mark on my bumper. Anything on his- which I could hardly detect- were old dirty marks. He pointed at a house and said there was a witness. Low and behold a man looking out.

I stood my ground and said I was happy for my insurance company to inspect the cars. He then said it didnt matter and would let it go.

Nevertheless, it worried me, I returned to the car, photographed both bumpers on my phone - unfortunately did not take his reg as he was watching from window and didnt want to exacerbate situation-and am contacting my insurance company in the morning.

Either he was winding me up, was after some cash or trying to get his car done up on my expense. It was a sports car.

This has happened to me before when I got a letter from the police saying i had written someone's car off at a roundabout. The police inspected my car and no damage or paint residue found. As I had been in the place reported at the time I reckon another scam or even taking my reg down instead of the perpitrator. My innocence was supported by the evidence.

Inform your insurance company, invite inspection (there will be paint on your car if you were involved)and tell them you are speaking to a solicitor. A scammer will withdraw quickly. A genuine mistake will be sorted out.

[Huggers]

Brewski- could it be the same people?

[brewski]

Thank you, the facts here are a little different as the 1st we heard of it was from our insurance co who said hed been in accident and given his details which he definitely did not. The insurance co contacted them and asked them to provide a description of him which they couldnt. However now it has gone to court as the other side said the insurance co didnt respond but we had only just heard of it. It all seems very odd to me but now it could be considered their word against ours. the car has no damage but now it seems too late to demand an inspection. sounds like we need to be firmer about demanding an inspection.

[TheePope]

It does seem very strange, especially as it's got to the stage of going to court. Several years ago I had a call from the police who accused me of being in an accident, I'd been driving in the area where the accident happened but had not been involved in or seen an accident. I asked them to come and inspect the car, and they said they already had! They'd found no damage so left it at that. So mistakes do happen but it seems odd that it's got to the insurance company stage. All I can suggest is going to the Citizens Advice Bureau who will doubtless have come across this sort of issue before and would give you some clear advice on what to do next.

One thing you might want to consider (and I don't wish to upset you further!), is if a car with a cloned number plate (the same as yours) has been invovled in an accident. Number plate cloning is reasonably common - if you just google it there's lots of advice on what to do and some of the issues it can cause.

Hope you get it sorted.

[louisiana]

So now number plate cloning is a fairly common thing. Ye gods. Unintended consequences and all that. Am I the only one feeling that modern life has become far too complex?

[muffins78]

It happened my Mum when she was pulled up at a traffic lights (in ireland) - and some guy knocked at her window saying she had crashed into him - which hadnt happened. One, she had no impact, and two, there were no marks on her car. She said she would call the police and the man refused, and they swapped insurance details (long story short). Anyway, she went and had her car examined as requested with photos etc., and of course there wasnt a mark on hers. The guy never produced any photos nor did he have his car examined. So it went to court, and this man won!! It was blatantly obvious that it was an insurance scam. The insurers knew this and so did the judge, but he was let away with it because he was part of "famous" group of people - where even my mum didnt care if he won or not - of course she didnt want her own name marked - but she just didnt want to be anyway involved in this person been unhappy.

Its a shame in todays world, seeing as much has come forward, that a minority still control what we do..

[FatherJack]

One evening, when I lived with my parents, a man called to the door holding a piece of paper that he claimed had been put on his wife's car windscreen. It said "the man who hit your car is called MY FATHER'S FULL NAME and address with FULL POSTCODE. Very strange it wasn't my father's writing but I took his details and told him

my father would call him. At the time my father was working at Kings College Hospital and the mystery caller said his wife was a nurse there. When my father arrived home he knew nothing of the incident and there was absolutely no damage to his car. What I will say about the mystery caller is that he appeared to be a off duty uniformed policeman, ie the shoes, trousers,shirt and his overall manner.

My father called him and told him in no uncertain terms that not only had his car NOT been in an accident but maybe there had been an abuse of position and that he would be reporting this to our local police station.

My father heard no more about it.