What is life like with your car? Let us know and win £500 in John Lewis vouchers | No thanks
Useless 101 - Doc

I have today been given incorrect information from the Police call centre 101.

I called to report an uninsured vehicle with no Mot parked on the highway.

First I was told that I should report this to the DVLA; this is not correct according to their website.

Then I was told that it was ok to park on the road without insurance as long as it was not being driven. I asked to speak to someone who actually knew the law, but was unsuccessful.

What is the point of 101 when they don't act on information?

Perhaps it should be no surprise that there are so many uninsured vehicles driving about.

Useless 101 - BMW Enthusiast

The Police service is getting really useless and unhelpful now. When you call to report anything there's nothing but questions from them about you instead of what you are actually reporting. There's also a charge for calling 101. Here in NI Police stations have very limited opening hours and are staffed by civil servants instead of Police Officers who you should be talking to. Altered private number plates and illegal fuel use is rife here and nothing is being done about it. An uninsured car should be locked away in a garage and definitely not be parked on the road.

Useless 101 - Manatee

There was a white transit parked ouside our house recently for no obvious reason, the three occupnats had got out and were talking amongst themselves by the van. They looked a bit dodgy to me so I checked the number. Mot'd and VED'd, but the emissions quoted were clearly not for a transit and the colour was given as silver. The Eurocarparsts website says this number is on a Ford Focus.

So I reported it. The description tallied with a van seen around the time of recent local thefts.

It wasn't easy. In the end I had to do it online. That was 3 weeks ago, I've heard nowt.

Useless 101 - galileo

Three weeks ago I reported to DVLA a tatty van parked on the road which has not been taxed or MOT'd since 2016.

After two weeks I reported it again with a more detailed location.

The council traffic warden has put two tickets on it because it is in a permit parking zone and has no permit.

The dodgy blokes I have seen getting in and out of it are, I suspect, ignoring the tickets as they are not registered as keepers, so won't suffer any consequences.

I would bet this isn't insured either, I gave the Old Bill its details for them to check but no action since.

What really annoys me is that I pay all I should and so many people ignore the law and get away with it.

Useless 101 - focussed

Apparently a senior police officer doesn't think much of the 101 sevice either, ok this article is dated 2015.

"Don't bother calling 101 non-emergency number because 'life's too short' - says top policeman."

In a meeting with Cambridge City Council councillors Inspector Johnson, who oversees the safer neighbourhood scheme in the county, said: "Historically I've said call 101 - but life's too short.

"I'm not supposed to say that - sorry"

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11916888/Don...l

Edited by focussed on 21/08/2018 at 00:50

Useless 101 - Smileyman

possibly too busy sitting around in their mobile speed camera vans ....

Useless 101 - Engineer Andy

I know what you mean - I wanted to report a local who regularly was parking his own car in visitor spaces (1 space per 5 homes) all the time that was being run (for 9 months) without a valid MOT and no VED. A colleague on the local residents association who's a copper said not to bother, even with the DVLA, as they aren't a priority. Maybe I should've said they said something rude on Twitter or suchlike, thenj they might get involved...

Useless 101 - Ethan Edwards

Perhaps the men exiting the van looked like they were carrying firearms?

Useless 101 - TheGentlemanThug

I've not used 101 myself, but I have reported illegal drivers to the police, specifically Thames Valley, via an online form and the amount of hoops to jump through is ridiculous.

To their credit, I did get responses advising me what had happened and thanking me for my efforts. If I hadn't, I probably wouldn't have bothered to report anything else.