Oh Dear. My poor mate...

[magnus911]

...has just realised that the BMW he paid £9k cash for last night is a stolen car. He found the ad in Autotrader, thought it was a great deal - it booked at around £12500 (i know, alarm bells!). The car was advertised as an 05 plate 318d ES Touring with 50k on the clock.

Anyway, he went to an address, which looking back on it, he reckons was probably an empty house this guy had broken into to look like he lived there.

He HPI'd the car, he checked the VIN, the V5, the Tax, the service history and handed over the cash. Today they all appear to be forgeries. The car, on closer inspection, is a 56 plate 320d SE Touring. the VIN numbers have been filed down and restamped.

So now he's thinking that the cash is gone, he's going to have to tell the police and he won't be able to recoup anything.

I've said that maybe he will be able to negotiate a reasonable price with the insurance company who now must own it (assuming they've paid out for it) in order to keep it. I remember watching a tv program on this recently and there was an old guy who bought a Discovery for £13k only to find out it was a cloned car. The insurance company demanded it back but he ended up offering them a grand to keep it and they agreed. Does anyone remember that? I have been trying to find it as maybe it will make him feel better but Google is letting me down for once!

Anybody know what his best options are? (If it were me and I thought there was no chance of getting any money back I'd be inclined to strip it and sell off all the parts).

 

[S3 SAF]

That is very unlucky of him to lose £9000 of his hard earned cash to some theif that should be......

 

[PNH80]

I saw that same show about the guy with the discovery. The insurance company wanted £13k to buy the car back (he'd already paid £13k in the first place).
Eventually after much wrangling, he made a stupid offer of £1k i believe and they accepted it because a stolen car is dead money to them anyway.

 

[magnus911]

I know I can't tell you how sorry I feel for him. I didn't get any sleep last night after he told me. I think if he'd have seen the same show I had on TV he wouldn't have fallen for it.

 

[davemk]

Won't he get his money back from the company that did the HPI check?

 

[jamiekip]

That sucks - I hate hearing stuff like this.
I had my number plate cloned the other week and have ahdto deal with all sorts of cr@p since then. Feckers

 

[magnus911]

Won't he get his money back from the company that did the HPI check?

Don't think so, as the HPI check was done on the car they nicked the reg from, not the stolen car they were selling - that is a major shortcoming of HPI checks...

Any ideas on how the police will actually correctly ID the car though?

<

 

[PaulMc]

That is why every HPI check should be done by presenting the VIN number and the reg plate to the HPI company. The buyer should also carefully check the VIN plates on the car and on the V5. A new BMW should have VIN nos. visible in the windscreen and under the bonnet. He didn't see anything suspicious about these?

 

[magnus911]

That is why every HPI check should be done by presenting the VIN number and the reg plate to the HPI company. The buyer should also carefully check the VIN plates on the car and on the V5. A new BMW should have VIN nos. visible in the windscreen and under the bonnet. He didn't see anything suspicious about these?

Not until he got home! He did check them when he picked up the car but the seller had gone to some lengths in filing down the old number and writing over the top. On close inspection it's easy to tell, but he didn't look hard enough.

 

[davemk]

That's learning the hard way. Poor bloke.

Has he contacted the police yet?

 

[PaulMc]

Yep, feel for him, but bit silly also. Always good to view a car twice and take a mate!

 

[Brookie-S3]

if he takes the car to bmw they can plug in and get the original vin number as its stored in the cars ecu.

imo id drive it around and not say anything, leat he mite get a bit of use out of it.

or he could totally loose the car

 

[Ash B]

...has just realised that the BMW he paid £9k cash for last night is a stolen car. He found the ad in Autotrader, thought it was a great deal - it booked at around £12500 (i know, alarm bells!). The car was advertised as an 05 plate 318d ES Touring with 50k on the clock.

Anyway, he went to an address, which looking back on it, he reckons was probably an empty house this guy had broken into to look like he lived there.

He HPI'd the car, he checked the VIN, the V5, the Tax, the service history and handed over the cash. Today they all appear to be forgeries. The car, on closer inspection, is a 56 plate 320d SE Touring. the VIN numbers have been filed down and restamped.

So now he's thinking that the cash is gone, he's going to have to tell the police and he won't be able to recoup anything.

I've said that maybe he will be able to negotiate a reasonable price with the insurance company who now must own it (assuming they've paid out for it) in order to keep it. I remember watching a tv program on this recently and there was an old guy who bought a Discovery for £13k only to find out it was a cloned car. The insurance company demanded it back but he ended up offering them a grand to keep it and they agreed. Does anyone remember that? I have been trying to find it as maybe it will make him feel better but Google is letting me down for once!

Anybody know what his best options are? (If it were me and I thought there was no chance of getting any money back I'd be inclined to strip it and sell off all the parts).

Really sorry to hear abou your mate! These days you have to be so careful my friend bought a car not long ago and found out its was two mini cooper's! Paid 8k for it! Lucky we just went to the person house as he wasnt that smart and demanded his money back. Got 7k and reported him to the police! To actually found out he was concacted to a few garages by me! Who also do the same!
Im not quite sure what he could do, i can remember seeings bit of that program about the discovery and other cars. But hopefully he be able to sort that out soon. Might be a stupid question but has he tried gonig back to the house? and concacting the person? Worth a try as some people like the man above used his actually house rather then some one else's or a empty one!

 

[magnus911]

Well he's called the police - they've sent around an insurance guy who has confirmed its real 07 plate and that it was stolen on the 21st July.

Do you think the insurance would have paid out already? If so, they may agree a fee so he can keep it. If they haven't paid out though, I suppose it will go back to the original owner.

 

[magnus911]

if he takes the car to bmw they can plug in and get the original vin number as its stored in the cars ecu.

imo id drive it around and not say anything, leat he mite get a bit of use out of it.

or he could totally loose the car

I know. I told him to shut up and strip it and sell it for parts. You might get close to your money back...

 

[afcjay]

think its about 6 weeks before the insurance pay out so will proberly go back to the original owner