Perils Of Puddlecote Update

Earlier this week, I wrote of the curious incident of the towed vehicle and institutional lack of giving a toss. Do go read for background if you didn't see it, as I have a brief update to relate.

In short, one of our legally parked vehicles was rammed by an incompetent driver. The police were informed and failed to notify us. Instead it was towed (the council didn't notify us either) and we were left with a hefty bill, along with the extra hassle and expenses which come with it.

I said that we'd heard not a peep out of the police after providing CCTV footage, but I was premature. The peep - and it is only that - arrived yesterday.

After consideration of all the available evidence and in view of the minor damage sustained, it has been decided that it would not be in the public interest to pursue a prosecution in this case and as a result no further action will be taken.

That's all right then, obviously.

Now, I read that as saying that they've investigated and worked out that the other party had done nothing wrong. This is true - it is pretty clear that they reported the incident so there was no 'hit and run'. The incompetence and lack of regard to property was wholly on the part of public sector bodies, namely the police and council.

So, despite tangible harm being done to a business through no fault of our own, case is closed. We're told to take it up with our insurance company and have been left high and dry. We've been informed that we can ask for owner details from DVLA via form V888 but - if they had bothered to watch the footage - the CCTV was from the side so no registration mark is visible. The only people who have details of the driver are the police to whom it was reported.

Needless to say, I'll be following Chris Woods' advice Tuesday morning.

While this would appear to be a case of the police hoping the problem will just go away because there is no crime to answer to, the reasoning is in stark contrast to another incident just two weeks prior.

That was the time when one of our most valuable vehicles was really stolen. It was taken three miles away and - although neatly parked - meant that it was out of commission for the day. We knew it was three miles away because it is fitted with a GPS tracker so accurate that it tells us exactly what road it is in.

Stupidly, we thought the police would be interested. You know, take fingerprints and stuff; search CCTV or known criminals who might be prone to preying on other vehicles not so secure? Not a bit of it. We told them precisely where it was so they did a 'drive by'. They rang us back and said it wasn't there.

I don't know if they really did do a 'drive by' because we described it, gave them the registration number and its position in a road around an eighth of a mile long. Nope, no sign of it, they said. So Mr P Snr drove there in case the tracker had been ripped out, and took pictures of it just to help them out.

I'm sure you won't be surprised that the response was "well, you've found it now, so case closed".

Looks like even six figure tax bills don't ever mean you get some kind of a 'win'. I'd like to suggest we just don't bother paying until we get a decent service, but they have guns and we don't.