I know of a teenage lad, nice lad but difficult family life/background poor sod. He has an old car he got from some place.
What he does NOT have are driving lessons, insurance, road tax or MOT but he has taken to going out on half hour or so trips in the car instead of riding his bike. The car trips have been forbidden by his parents but he ignores them and goes out when they are not home.

I feel concerned as if he gets pinched he will be in a load of trouble, his family cant afford fines etc, worse if he has or causes an accident the poor person who is injured/killed will get no compensation as there is no insurance.

Is there anyone in authority I can inform who might give him a scare, without getting him in deep trouble? Do the police still have ‘quiet words’ or is that all in the past now? I am really worried he might injure or kill someone, partly because I already know someone who did something similar and they wrote off a their car in a ditch but at least they did not hit a person or other vehicle. There is no point in me having a word with the lad as clearly he is not up for listening to common sense.

A quiet word really?

Nope sorry he needs the car taken off him so I’d be contacting the police.

no idea but unfortunately you need to act.
He is young so let life teach him a lesson without anyone else being harmed

Grass him up to his parents.

Let his tyres down.

2 options here
Speak to coppers quiet word he stops doing it due to scaring him a bit
or
Speak to coppers non quiet word he gets bollocked and fines and he stops driving it.

The important bit is he stops driving it, sometimes you have to learn. If he is old enough not to listen or care he will get caught and have to deal with the consequences.

You say he’s a nice enough lad – speak to him.

Kill him! Its for his own good!

I’d tell the Police, given he could easily kill someone, I don’t think he should be stopped asap.

EDIT: or just kill him as Binners suggested…..

Sorry, as a victim of an uninsured driver myself, I have zero sympathy here.
Difficult family background… blah, blah, blah… these idiots always have some excuse. He’s an adult, he’s made his choices.

Ask yourself this question – if he goes out and kills someone this afternoon, how will you feel about yourself? Then pick up the phone and do the right thing.

Ask yourself this question – if he goes out and kills someone this afternoon, how will you feel about yourself? Then pick up the phone and do the right thing.

Exactly. Can’t believe this is even up for debate. I suppose if you wanted to do it without getting him in trouble you could just report the untaxed car, then it would just be taken away and crushed?

I am trying to do something about this.
I want to do it in a discreet way, hence asking the police or authorities position on this.

There are reasons I cannot disclose on here why I do not want to stress his troubled family further with heavy wading in – they have enough difficulties in life already, none of which are their fault – sometimes people lives are hard enough.

Pop a wheel clamp on it overnight? I bet that you could pick one up used for very little money….

Talk to him and offer to give him driving lessons on the proviso that he stops driving on his own? He’ll need to tax and insure it though, the latter of which ain’t cheap!

There are reasons I cannot disclose on here why I do not want to stress his troubled family further with heavy wading in – they have enough difficulties in life already, none of which are their fault – sometimes people lives are hard enough.

Not wishing to sound harsh, but that’s not how life works is it? “Oh, they’ve already had 100 trouble points, so now they are free to do as they wish”. Yes they’ve been dealt a bad hand, it doesn’t excuse this though. Don’t you think life would also be difficult for another family if one of their loved ones was killed/injured by a driver who shouldn’t be on the roads? It’s not like this is a minor indiscretion, it’s serious.

Call the local police station. Ask to speak to the community policeman for your area. Ask if they would pay a visit in an official capacity, following a tipoff. It might do the trick.
If they want to make it VERY official, so be it.

There are reasons I cannot disclose on here why I do not want to stress his troubled family further with heavy wading in – they have enough difficulties in life already, none of which are their fault – sometimes people lives are hard enough

So they should know better than to create more problems for themselves.

He is a danger to himself and others and needs to be dealt with accordingly – for his own good and everyone elses

they have enough difficulties in life already, none of which are their fault – sometimes people lives are hard enough.

They are very true but it does not mean people can do what they please, pop along to the police station ask to talk to the local community officer and explain the situation. You may be surprised how understanding they can be but it needs addressed urgently before someone is hurt.

It depends where you live i think, if it was round here ie in the country im sure if i rang 101 thered send someone round to have a word. but if your in a busy town i doubt theyed do anything unless it was reported proper, hes not going to get into to much trouble anyway unless they actualy catch him driving it

There are reasons I cannot disclose on here why I do not want to stress his troubled family further with heavy wading in – they have enough difficulties in life already, none of which are their fault – sometimes people lives are hard enough.

Still no excuse for driving uninsured without license. Its not your life issues to worry about at the end of the day. I’d be more concerned with the risk to everyone else’s.

Ask yourself this question – if he goes out and kills someone this afternoon, how will you feel about yourself?

+1
Tell the Police.

If you remove the emotive factors . The answer is easy person A is a member of a society that is bound by and protected by roles . Organisation B enforces.the rules to protect society . Person C is breaking the rules for fun and by doing so endangering himself and other members of society. Should A tell B about C .

He hasn’t been in the vicinity of any Critical Mass rides recently has he?

I am trying to do something about this.

Yep, and I think you deserve some recognition for that, there are plenty of people who’d turn a blind eye.

I do hope you can find a way of doing it quickly though.

Why would the police have a quiet word with someone driving without insurance/tax/MOT/licence (?) etc. ?

The lad’s a danger to himself and others and needs to be off the road until he’s qualified/safe.

How would you feed towards the police if an uninsured/unqualified driver injured you or your family and it turned out that the police were aware but had chosen not to take any preventative action ?

+1 what stufive said.

Round the shires a few words down the pub to find the right kind of local officer of the constabulary and he’d be lined up for a chat. Or (and this may not apply in the OPs case) more likely someone that the young lad respects more than his family (even if only out of fear) would be asked to ‘ave a word.

Jerry, thanks thats the most helpful suggestion so far.

I don’t understand why people think I am not taking this situation seriously. If I did not give a damn I would hardly be asking for advise on how to sort it. As I said, there are other very serious issues involved here that I need to pussyfoot round and which I am not able to discuss. These are decent people under a lot of pressure at the moment.

Dress up as a policeman and pay a visit yourself. If you don’t want him to recognise you, wear a comedy nose and moustache or some of those Billy bob teeth.

Frighten him first with threats of prison before hinting that for some sugar, he’ll get off with a warning.

That should see you right.

(seriously, local policy station on the blower [sic], now)

What would actually happen if you reported this to the police without the “quiet word” request?

I’m guessing someone’s say-so wouldn’t be enough to arrest and convict, so would they stake out and wait for him to go for a drive, or go round for a word in the first instance anyway?

Why would the police have a quiet word with someone driving without insurance/tax/MOT/licence (?) etc. ?

Why?
Because it’s probably more effective and cheaper.
Official route – Need to gather evidence that the vehicle is being used. Non trivial if it’s not being driven through an ANPR camera or isn’t registered. Would also have to prove the lad is the driver. All a bit complex and messy and time consuming.

Getting a Policeman to have a word in his ear that he’s on their radar’s going to be a lot quicker to achieve.

Life isn’t fair, that is a fact.

I dont think Police do quiet words anymore, if he gets caught they will throw the book at him.

Print out a warning notes saying “drive this again and I’ll report you to the police, a friendly warning” and stick it to his screen?

As stufive and stoner say, this depends largely on where you live. Round here, we’d do it no bother, in the big smoke, such a request would probably never get past the call centre/front desk to the actual police.

I would have thought without catching him red handed, or without an official statement, then there’s not a whole lot the police could do anyway.

Except have a private word…and then the ball’s in his court.

Assuming the car is SORNed and kept legitimately off road.

Chances are with ANPR cameras these days it wouldn’t be too long until he’s caught anyway, so you’d be doing him a favour.

I know of a teenage lad, nice lad but difficult family life/background poor sod. He has an old car he got from some place.
What he does NOT have are driving lessons, insurance, road tax or MOT but he has taken to going out on half hour or so trips in the car instead of riding his bike. The car trips have been forbidden by his parents but he ignores them and goes out when they are not home.

I feel concerned as if he gets pinched he will be in a load of trouble, his family cant afford fines etc, worse if he has or causes an accident the poor person who is injured/killed will get no compensation as there is no insurance.

He is probably your kid and you have no control over him, take the keys off him, and throw them away, he is a danger to himself and others, and best off the road, i dont want to share the roads with uninsured ,untrained drivers, the ones with a bit a paper are stupid enough.

08001199 crimestoppers, before he kills someone.

You just need to call Crime Stoppers and all the local bobbies will be given the information.

They will then just so happen to bump into him whilst he’s driving.

You won’t need to get involved and all the evidence required will be provided by the Police who have witnessed the driving offences take place.

You clearly know him and the family well – is he involved with any other local groups who have an authority figure he’d respect? Would a “stop or we’ll grass on you” note under the wiper do anything? If nothing else will work then a visit to the local police station is the only option. Ateotd he’s an unqualified untaxed uninsured driver in a non roadwothy vehice, which he may not be the registered keeper of – a liability on the road and exactly the sort of person you’d want dealt with in any other circumstances.

I thought Crime Stoppers was just a helpful service provided by the state for drug dealers to put their competition out of business?

Simply put is there any possibility he can afford £3k to insure it? (in one lump if he’s 17 no DD till18!) if the answer is no then he has to be stopped, more he gets away with it the longer the road trips will get…. everyone crashes eventually at that age!

Given how little the police tend to do I’d say report it via 101. If everyone else on the road gets lucky and he gets caught before anyone has a “word” with him then that’s his own fault.

On the other hand, if you report it, the police won’t have any evidence, so they may well just go and warn him that they’ve been tipped off, he’s on their radar and if he’s caught then they’ll throw the book at him. I doubt they’d go for a stakeout to try to catch him at it.

I’ve no idea what they’d do, but I imagine at the very least a quiet word is better than the word they’ll have to have when he smashes up some poor bugger’s car and that poor bugger realises that there’s no insurance to pay for the damage, let alone any other consequences.

Then again, a friendly “quiet word” doesn’t work with some people – the kind of people who drive around in untaxed, uninsured unMOT’d cars I guess.

Report it to your local plod and let them decide what to do about it. That’s what they’re there for.

puncture his tyres in the wee small hours

Obviously you have to let the police know. But then it is up to them how to deal with it, they are more experienced at this. If you tell the police the worst case scenario is what? Car gone, fine and points on a future license. If you don’t tell them, the worse case is he kills people.