Ford Fiesta Zetec - I bought a stolen Car (Clone) what happens now?

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Wed 9 May 2012 10:50
Ford Fiesta Zetec - I bought a stolen Car (Clone) what happens now? - davidmaiden18183

I bought a car via private sale on Thursday last week. All VIN's on the vehicle had been changed and where engraved on the chassis it was filled and a new number engraved. On close scrutiny of the V5 log book on Saturday I noticed a few odd things and determined it fake. All this was reported to the police and the TAX and MOT appeared fake as well.

Today the vehicle is being taken to a ford garage to be plugged in and have its ECU checked. Is it certain this will identify the true VIN of the vehicle?

Once they have identified its true identity they will obviously know the date stolen.

I believe insurers don’t pay out for a vehicle theft to the original owners until at least 30 days - those 30 days it’s classed as TWOC (taken without consent). After 30+ days the insurer will pay out but typically this seems to be about 6 weeks.

the policeman seem to think that these clones are turned around quite quick after theft which is ominous for me as if the insurers hasn’t paid out it goes back to the original owner and I get nothing for my £3400 handed over for the criminal

If the insurer has paid the car will go to the insurer and I would then hopefully get a chance to buy it from them at a reasonable price as they cut their losses.

Is all this correct?

Where I am not clear is if in the latter case and it is given to the insurer what becomes of the vehicle? Is it Q plated? Category C Registered? Marked as Stolen-returned on its History? Will it retake its original identify/get a new one and need to be tested before returning to the road?

I need to understand factor those things as they obviously reflect what I should offer the insurer and what the vehicle would be worth to me. Can anyone she’d any light on that. Also would insurer give me a higher premium or not touch me if it was Q plated/Cat C Registered?

As mad as it sounds even though I have paid £3400 already, it would be better of for me to pay say £2000 more to buy the car from the insurer (and then have paid a £1000-£1500 over the odds for what’s its worth) but then actually have a car of some value, than have paid £3400 and have nothing.

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Wed 9 May 2012 11:00
Ford Fiesta Zetec - I bought a stolen Car (Clone) what happens now? - Ethan Edwards

Sorry for your situation. You never actually bought the car in the first place. The car you took home wasn't the car it pretended to be. So you have never had 'good title' to the documented car.

Yes the insurers or the owner will be taking it away. I think your idea about buying it off the insurers is sound. Did you HPI check it? If so might there be some redress to be had there?

Any chance of catching the bad guy's?

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Wed 9 May 2012 11:45
Ford Fiesta Zetec - I bought a stolen Car (Clone) what happens now? - davidmaiden18183

Yes I know I have no ownership on the title and it wasn’t a legitimate sale - I thought that was obviously sorry.

I do hope to get an opportunity to buy from the insurer but it’s those questions I asked which will help me figure out what to offer if I get a chance.... without knowing a may be buying a bit of a lemon!

I did a check on the vehicle but not an official HPI one, whichever you use it does not check for clones or offer any cover there. Effectively all I was doing was checking the details of a car that did exist down in the south of England.

The police aren’t too interested in chasing up any opportunities with CCTV or even fishing with autotrader (where it was for sale) for the payment card details address etc of the person who put it up for sale. This is small fry to them, and my police force openly admit they are just doing the opening part of an investigation as a crime isn’t official until they officially ID the vehicle as stolen - and then the case is handed to the police force of the district that the car was stolen from...and the I 'purchased' the car in another county (not my own) as well so that crime was committed in a different county too.

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Wed 9 May 2012 13:37
Ford Fiesta Zetec - I bought a stolen Car (Clone) what happens now? - TeeCee

The police aren’t too interested in chasing up any opportunities with CCTV or even fishing with autotrader (where it was for sale) for the payment card details address etc of the person who put it up for sale. This is small fry to them, and my police force openly admit they are just doing the opening part of an investigation as a crime isn’t official until they officially ID the vehicle as stolen - and then the case is handed to the police force of the district that the car was stolen from...and the I 'purchased' the car in another county (not my own) as well so that crime was committed in a different county too.

Hmm, no wonder it's so common, the plod seem to be doing everything possible to ensure that ringing vehicles is easy to get away with by ensuring that an insurmountable pile of paperwork obstructs any attempt at investigation and moves it onto the "too hard" pile. You'd almost think they were getting a percentage on every bent car sold.

Also nice to see that continous registration and the controls on obtaining number plates are proving to be worthless. Inconvenient to the motorist, but make no odds to the crooks. As far as I can make out, everyone saw that coming, bar the idiots behind the legislation.

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Wed 9 May 2012 15:00
Ford Fiesta Zetec - I bought a stolen Car (Clone) what happens now? - tony g
(Will it retake its original identify/get a new one and need to be tested before returning to the road?)

Hi David ,really sorry to hear about your problems .

To answer your questions ,first you say it's been taken to a ford garage to have its identity checked ,will you be driving it ?.It may be that your not insured to drive the car as its not the car it's represented to be .If you're sure that you're insured to drive the car ,can I suggest that you don't leave the car with the garage ,if possible don't allow the police to take the car away .As said in other posts the police are apathetic when dealing with cloned cars .

If you leave the car with the garage ,they will charge storage fees ,making it more expensive for you to buy it if you decide to do that .If the police have pocession of the car ,your opportunity to buy the car will be weaker than if it's sat on your drive .

If the insurance company has not paid the true owner ,the car will be simply returned them .If not and you decide to buy the car ,the car would usually be classed as stolen recovered ,making it a class d .That does have an effect on its value ,as a general rule the car would be worth about a third less than it would normally be,both trade and retail values are affected .

Once the cars true identity is established ,it will be returned to its original number plates .Q plates are used when a cars true age can't be determined ,ie a kit car built from second hand parts .

Tony g
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Wed 9 May 2012 18:28
Ford Fiesta Zetec - I bought a stolen Car (Clone) what happens now? - injection doc

did you not take a discreet picture of the guy you bought it from ?

was it quyite a good deal in the paper ? its so common nowdays

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Wed 20 Jun 2012 11:30
Ford Fiesta Zetec - I bought a stolen Car (Clone) what happens now? - NikB

Hello David,

I am very sorry to hear that you fell for the same scam that I recently fell for. Can you tell me what the outcome was?

I bought a cloned vehicle recently and I am devastated! I did a full HPI check, the vehicle had service history and MOT certificates that matched all the VIN numbers. This is serious organised crime and these scumbags are not stupid. The car was not cheap for it's age and mileage so there was nothing to make me think that it was a dodgy sale.

I only found out because my boyfriend plugged a diagnostic machine into the vehicle and the vin number on the machine was different to the ones on the machine!

I have informed the police that I have suspicions about the car and they are coming to inspect. I believe that my only hope is that the insurance have paid the owner of the vehicle and I can buy it from the insurance company.

I have given the police the address and telephone number of the seller but if they are able to prosecute him it is unlikely that they will be able to recoup my money because these criminals do not have bank accounts and therefore the courts deem them unable to pay the funds.

HPI do not protect you against cloned vehicles. This was a private sale and I paid cash, so I cannot sue a dealership or claim back on a credit card.

Did you manage to purchase your vehicle from the insurance company and how much did you pay?

I would really appreciate any help. Was there any organisation that you went to for advice? I understand that I am better to keep the car in my possession so that the insurance company will have to deal with me to pick it up because the police are unlikely to give me any information about the owner. I have heard of something called section 66 of PACE, that I might be able to use to stop the police seizing the vehicle until the investigation is over.

Thanks

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Wed 20 Jun 2012 13:51
Ford Fiesta Zetec - I bought a stolen Car (Clone) what happens now? - mss1tw

It may be possible your vehicle has had an ECU failure at some point and had a second-hand one from a scrapyard/breaker fitted.

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Wed 20 Jun 2012 23:18
Ford Fiesta Zetec - I bought a stolen Car (Clone) what happens now? - NikB

m

Edited by NikB on 20/06/2012 at 23:30

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Thu 21 Jun 2012 23:24
Ford Fiesta Zetec - I bought a stolen Car (Clone) what happens now? - graham111
I bought a stolen Transit van years back. It was part of an investigation into a major theft ring. The police let me hang onto it while the investigation was on going and I had it for a couple of years. I could not get it through a second MOT as the chassis plate was missing and I eventually flogged it for cash to a local man who gave me a signed letter stating he was aware of it's history and he was prepared to accept the risk. He was goimg to have it Q plate registered as that was the only way to get it back on the road legally. If you legally take ownership of a stolen recovered vehicle it will likely be hard to sell on and the value will plummet. The police told me that insurers find it to much hassle to recover stolen vehicles quite often and prefer to take the loss. The police never did get back to me.
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Sun 8 Jul 2012 23:09
Ford Fiesta Zetec - I bought a stolen Car (Clone) what happens now? - Kayleighp89

Hi,

I was just wondering whats happening about your car??

I had my Ford Fiesta stolen in Feb, and my insurers still haven't paid out, but have just found out that the very next day after it was stolen it was bought at a dealership (Im not entirely sure of exact details as they will not disclose that information to me) So, I believe mine could have been cloned.

I feel so sorry for people like you who get scammed in that way, it is awful how they can destroy 2 totally different people by stealing a car!

Mine had my 8 month old babies pram and brand new car seat in! Totally devasted and struggling without a car!!

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