Can you have a word with the kid himself? Tell him you’ve seen him driving this car, he hasn’t a licence, no insurance etc, and make it clear to him the consequences if he does get caught. You could always say you are appealing to his good nature/common sense, but if you see him doing it again, you will report him to the police or tell his parents.

Think about it – if it was a member of your family or a friend hurt or worse by a kid doing this, would you care particularly about the fact that the family is troubled and he’s had a hard life? Methinks you’d be worried about the impact on you and yours more than the impact on the idiot who was driving around without licence, insurance or proper driver training. You would want the book thrown at him.

Do you know a policeman, or know someone that does?

If so ask them to pop around for am ‘unofficial’ chat when he’s in with his folks – to scare the crap out of him.

If you don’t then the community cop is a good idea, but explain how you just want it to be unofficial – so don’t tell them who/where until you are happy.

There is no point at this time getting him into trouble with the law for the sake of it – obviously if he pays no attention to the warnings, then yes, it’s official next time.

And I’m guess the different answers above are an indication of age and/or where the person lives – unofficial use to be the main way when I was a kid, especially as most kids of my ages biggest worry was your Mum finding out, ‘cos she’d lather you far harder than your Dad would.

Just report to police. If they go round and hes not actually driving then he’ll get a warning. If hes driving then tough shit really isn’t it.

Whats his name I’ll sure as hell ring it in for you. You’re stupid if you don’t. Tomorrow he could kill someones child!!!

sometimes people lives are hard enough

Someone elses life could become a lot harder if you dont act.

Can you report the car for being uninsured, untaxed and unMOT’d so it gets taken away, without involving the driving offence side of it?

Sussex has Operation Crackdown which is a softly softly approach I think; i.e. monitor computer databases, send out letters sort of thing, does your local force have something similar?

Failing that +1 here for the PCSO route also .. even your local library/newsagent/DR surgery/Parish info board will probably have their direct line/cell phone number publicly available

Are you not able to drop into conversation with his parents something like: have you ever thought about actually clamping that car or taking the keys off your son? Or are they the unapproachable kind of neighbour?

Usually a quiet word is not the best course of action for someone driving with no licence, insurance, tax or MOT.

He’ll know full well that he needs them and he’s breaking the law.

There is also a very good chance that the car is not road legal, so he could be committing numerous other offences as well.

Just report online at Crime Stoppers and be done with it.

I also wouldn’t be too worried about him getting into trouble, as he obviously isn’t worried about the rest of the population out and about minding their own business.

+1 for the local PCSO

Do Police still have ‘quiet words”?

No, not sure they really ever did, other than in some nostalgic “Dixon of dock green” view of a past that never really existed. Unless of course someone was a member of the same lodge, then by a simple handshake and nipple rub, all could be covered up.

they have enough difficulties in life already, none of which are their fault

whereas losing a child or a loved one to an uninsured and unlicensed driver in a non-MOT’ed car is a bit of a laugh really

I’d report it to your local traffic police, its upto them then what they do about it (if they do). Too many variables and if he hasn’t had any training/insurance etc its only a matter of time before kinetics come into play.

The fact that this lad isn’t listening to his parents and you don’t think you can approach him speaks volumes about the lad. Hes into tough love territory.

-1 for the pcso , my understanding would be the pcso is less likely to be in a position do to a quiet word and will have to record and account for all information with his or her supervision. your local beat officer / community constable may have more freedom of action. Either course could result in a quiet word but speaking to a police officer is abetter bet. You can have no control over how they chose to act once you tell them. Many forces take significant action in response to uninsured drivers on the basis that they are likely to be up to other things .

*worries what Hora’s idea of ‘tough love’ is*

Shop him, not about to go into it on here but i’ve lived wi the consequences of such a driver causing a serious accident for the past 22 years, it affects my life every minute of everyday so all that crap about hard life etc..etc – i say **** him.

We’ve had the officer who looks after our village and surrounding area go into the local school and make an example of some kids that were racing around at lunch time and shouting lots of obscenities out car windows at each other. I felt like a grump doing it but it was getting worse and worse and it was only a matter of time until there was an accident and I had already seen a few near misses.

Police at the ‘local’ (ie 15 miles away) station were not very helpful and wanted us to go down and make a full complaint etc but the local officer saw the call log after the weekend and got in touch and dealt with it exactly how we thought was appropriate. ie she went in made an example of them, had a word with them and their parents. Stupid driving now stopped, kids have learnt a valuable lesson and wont feel resentment as they don’t have points or even higher insurance etc. Granted that may not work in some places with some kids but we are more than happy at the way the Police woman dealt with it, the way the school dealt with it and the way the kids responded.

find out who works your area and speak to them properly. If they need to come down hard (which I suspect they do in this case) then they will have to.

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

You may be surprised.

Its not as if a car has 20 keys – why the hell don’t the parents just lock away the 1/2 keys and take some responsibility themselves?

Ask your local neighbourhood watch for the local constable’s details

If the parents don’t realise kiddo is out joy riding, then they probably think their ban from the car is being obeyed, and thus have no reason to hide the keys.

Perhaps this kid does not realise the enormity of the consequences should he be caught, or hit someone? If parents have a lot of issues (OP suggests this might be the case, family with problems etc) then perhaps they have never taken the time to impress upon their son what could happen to him if he was caught behind the wheel by the police. Kid might just think “oh what the hell it’s a fine and a telling off”.

If you contact the police and he gets caught his future is royaly screwed. Job prospects rapidly diminish with a ban before you even have a licence , or as a new driver.

Can you not put a strongly worded warning letter either under the windscreen wiper , or to him and/or his parents?

Unless he knows it can only be you , then you may as well call Crimestoppers now.

Thing is you have to do something now, how would you feel if he gets killed or kills someone in a rtc and you did nothing.

If you like him and you like his family you’ll inform the police.

It will be tough on him and he may be banned from driving and it may affect his future job prospects.

You might be lucky, he might never have an accident. Or he could kill someone, then he’ll go to jail and someone will be dead…and you’ll know you could have prevented it.

He’s obviously a gambler…are you?

Could you not just create a letterhead that looks like its from the local constabulary. And word the letter in an official sounding way so it says ‘we’re on to you sonny, now pack it in, or you’re ****ing nicked.’?

If it looks convincing enough, he’ll brick it, and problem solved!

I could knock one up for you in about 2 minutes. Purely hypothetically of course (hypothetical email in profile)

could hypothetical letter be regarded, hypothetically, as impersonating a police officer? Oh would be amusing to report binners 🙂

Who knows. Its all hypothetical!

I could tell you (hypothetically) amusing stories of when we were students, forging letterheads from Technics, saying that the CD players that 2 people on our course had just bought were emitting dangerously high levels of radiation, and they should unplug them immediately, wrap them in silver foil and place them in the freezer, then wait for decontamination crews to turn up.

As they both received the same official looking letter on the same morning, they compared notes, shat themselves, did as they were told, then contacted one of their dads, who was a lawyer, to try and sue Technics. 😆

This is what is known as passing the monkey.
You are worried that he will kill or injure someone while driving his car
You don’t want to have a word with him yourself, so you ask yourself who can I pass this on to
The police, they will sort it, when I have told them, if he does kill someone , I’ve passed my monkey on, so its not on ,y conscience
Imagine going to a police officer,
Hello officer, I am worried that a lad I know is driving without insurance or driving licence, I am worried he might kill someone, can you have a quiet word, without taking any further action
PC, yes sir, I will go and have a quiet word, tell him not to drive the car, but won’t take any formal action, I won’t record that I have spoken to him.if he then carries on driving, and does kill or injure someone, can I rely on your never to tell anyone that I’ve had a word?
I need to be sure because if he does kill someone and anyone finds out I’ve spoken to him, and let him carry on driving illegally, I will get sacked, probably go to prison,
Also sir, I will have the constant worry that I have let this dangerous uninsured driver out on the roads, and wil be wondering if he will in fact crash the vehicle, maybe into a innocent pedestrian.
Actually sir, I think I will just visit this lad, ask to see his driving documents, and when he hasn’t got any, I will arrange to seize his vehicle and have it crushed.

All above tongue in cheek, but true.
The bst you could hope for is that a local p.c will attend the premises, and if the vehicle is on the road, he will speak to the lad, ask for docs, when he has not got any , have the car crushed, and that would be an end to it.
I f he gets caught driving he will get reported for the driving offences

I’m assuming the car isn’t off road possibly judging by family situation – surely it could be done for having no MOT without the requirement to catch the lad driving it? Kinda win-win then.

Driving is a privilege, not a right.

How are you going to feel if he kills someone?

What would you do if you saw him waving a gun round in the street?

Having said which, this time round I’d report the car, not him, and get it off the road and crushed. Unless it is SORNED, in which case someone needs to dob him in, or tell him they are going to.

Sorry

It literally could be a child’s face next time.

Hes into tough love territory.

Bring out the gimp.

Is “un tutored” a new way of saying completely illegal?

in my experience quite words don’t work i got a few when i was 16 from riding motorbikes on the road with not insurance/license etc.. it was only after i was sat in the cop shop that i finally got the picture it wasn’t a good idea 😯 still suffering the consequences now

So, midnighthour, what have done about the situation??????

Oh come on, tell us what you decided to do………….

This used to be called joyriding iirc. Huge potential negative consequences.

He might be a nice lad but he’s also clearly a bit of a ****.

Have to go with ‘report him.’

Tell the police! Where are you? If the car is on a public road it would be seized. If he is caught driving it, it will be seized, he will be reported on summons to court and will probably get a fine and points on a licence he doesn’t yet have. Trust me, in this day and age, we have to do everything by the book, certainly with something like this. Discretion still exists but only in a few circumstances now!

This used to be called joyriding iirc

You recall wrong. joyriding was stealing cars and then racing round in them, often taunting the police into a chase.

You should get GI Joe to have a word. Or Alvin Stardust.

Just report online at Crime Stoppers and be done with it.

^This. Give the index number of the car and then it will have a flag put against it. If he drives past an ANPR camera – instant pull.

Or Alvin Stardust.

😆

Edit: “step-” never mind.