Firstly I will say that I really think this is a scam.
My husband and I went out last week to get a couple of bits from a couple of shops. We parked in the private car park of the supermarket/retail park next to a vehicle that looked a bit 'unloved'. I ran in to a cheap clothes shop to pick up some clothes for my daughter because she said she had had an accident and needed clean dry clothes. Whilst I was doing this my husband was getting her out of the car and taking her to the toilet because she hadn't actually had an accident (2 yr old). He says he opened the car door and rested it againt the 'unloved' vehicle. The man who owned said vehicle was returning to it at this time and started telling my husband he had damaged his vehicle with our car door. My husband checked this mans vehicle and whilst there was a small chip of paint off of the door it was an old one, not fresh white chaffed door bang - no dent either. Our car door was not damaged in any way whatsoever.
I come trundling out of the shop, see husband having a chat with said man. Then as I got closer I realise this was a heated discussion. Got to the car, husband explains. I looked at the car (used to work in Car Finance Repo's so I know about damage more than he does) see the small chip of paint off - looks old (think probably 6-12 months old). I look at our car and see no damage at all. I tell said person that owns the 'unloved' that there is no way that my husband did that damage and to get stuffed. He told me that if we were not going to take responsibility he would call the Police. I told him to go ahead. Whilst he is on the phone he is taking pictures of our car number plate (which makes me nervous - husband is in the army) and of our car and his. I told my husband to take pictures too. 'Unloved' owners friend comes back from the shop. 'Unloved' owner comes off of the phone and my husband asks him who he was on the phone to, he responds 'his bodyshop'. Well, at that point I went apoplectic and told him in no uncertain terms embarrassingly loud that he can fuck off to the far side of fuck and then fuck off some more. People were staring. 'Unloved' owner tried to claim that he had recently had the vehicle re sprayed - not a hope in hell, it had a lot of dents by the drivers door handle. I shouted that I was NOT going to be giving him any money and told my husband to call the police. As soon as I mentioned the police the 'Unloved' owner's friend spoke to him in what I think was Polish (may have been another Eastern European language but sounded like Polish to me) and they got in the 'Unloved' vehicle and drove off.
Afterwards one lady came over and gave us the vehicle registration on a bit of paper (we had pics anyway) and another came over and gave us her details as she said she saw the whole thing.
My husband reported the incident to the Police, and we have an incident number. He also received a call the next day from the Police asking for a few more details because they said that they wanted to speak to the man in question. So I have a feeling this is not the first incident involving this vehicle.
Today I received a call from our insurance company as this man has made a claim. I have told the insurance company all that has happened but I am very stressed by it all. We are moving in the next 10 days into a civilian home which is not protected by guards and I am paranoid that this man is going to find out where we live damage our car if he doesn't get his pound of flesh through the insurance company.
Anyway what I really want to know is has anyone been through this sort of thing, and if so what the out come was. I usually work in financial services I really do not want to be the victim of insurance fraud.
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Non-Accident in Private Car Park - Need to know where we stand
27 replies
financialwizard · 21/11/2012 14:39
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