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Posting for a friend and was hoping to get a little advice please.
Friend was parked outside another friends house one evening, neighbour comes out of house and scratches my friends car door, obviously not realising someone was in the car.
Police were called, crime number given. PC went to the house, spoke to the neighbour who admitted the offence. PC then had a chat with my friend and informed them what the neighbour had said. There was also a brief discussion about claiming on car insurance.
My friend has just accrued two years no claims so is reluctant to try and claim via insurance (estimate for repair is £350).
Is this likely to be passed on to the CPS, the PC's notes sufficient as evidence? Is there another way to claim using the County Court system, does anyone have any advice in this regard please?
My friend is keen to pursue this in some legal manner as it wasn't an accident and feels it is unfair for the neighbour to go unpunished.
Any and advice would be greatly appeciated please!
If the police don't do anything as (as I suspect) the offence isn't worth their dealing with, suggest to your 'friend' that they go back around to the house and put their window through/kill their dog/shit through their letterbox. Arseholes - I hate self-entitled people like that.
You can claim through small claims court since you have his name, address, crime reference number, plus he's admitted it to police.
Can't offer any legal advice, but there are some right arse holes around. Reason for keying the car? Guy has admitted it to the police, surely they should be prosecuting this crime? As it is there seems little reason for him not to do it again.
Criminal damage no?
Isn't this [url= https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/criminal-damage ]Criminal damage?[/url]
Reason for keying the car?
Daring to park outside his house, I imagine. Sounds like my old neighbour, but people are like this everywhere.
Yes, Small Claims.
Daring to park outside his house, I imagine. Sounds like my old neighbour, but people are like this everywhere.
I'm sure you're right. Exactly the sort of person that needs to be punished.
Probably is criminal damage, but even if the police prosecute and he's found guilty, doesn't necessarily get the car repaired.
Might stop him doing it again though
Just one small point I'd like to add, my friend has never parked outside this neighbours house.
The neighbour keeps his car on the road directly outside his own house.
Anyway, thanks for the replies, I will pass this info on to them!
So what was the motive? Was he boffing the neighbour's wife?
If I was him I wouldn’t notify my insurance.
He could lose his no-claims and have to start from scratch.
He could lose his no-claims and have to start from scratch.
I see what you did there.
Go down small claims court route. Simple, cheap and effective.
Deffo don't notify insurance.
He could tentatively research private prosecutions as well. Not sure how much effort that is - could be vast! Very satisfying if it's feasible, though.
This really boils my piss. Why won’t they prosecute? He’s broken the law and admitted it ffs!
Was it a Skoda?
I once had my car keyed after blocking the entrance to someone's drive. The problem was, it was my friend's drive I was blocking and we were there visiting so presumably some random neighbour decided that I shouldn't have parked there and delivered their own retribution.
Wanted to keep this vague but I'll add some more details...
This neighbour is 60 years old and is known to be grumpy towards other neighbours, drives an old tatty car but has a very nicely kept large Victorian semi detached house, ample parking.
My friend is 20, drove a cheap older car for two years, worked two jobs to save up then replaced it with a three year old car.
Apparently one of the comments which the PC will have in his notes was, 'I f-ing hate that car', so the issue probably is parking.
Is there any way to insist that the Police/CPS make a prosecution?
He could lose his no-claims and have to start from scratch.
That's a key point.
See what I did there?
Small claims again, easy to do online. Even ask Citizens Advice, I found them very helpful when I claimed against a garage that ripped me off.
I once had my car keyed after blocking the entrance to someone’s drive. The problem was, it was my friend’s drive I was blocking and we were there visiting
I didn't get keyed but got a load of verbals for parking across a drive one Saturday morning. Their anger abated somewhat when i opened the boot and offloaded the shopping into the driveway of my own house.
This really boils my piss. Why won’t they prosecute? He’s broken the law and admitted it ffs!
Who has said they won’t ?
One thought to add, but it sucks. (If I understand correctly), your friend taking the neighbour to court or pursuing further could make it difficult for their friend (whose house they were parked outside) living next to the neighbour for the foreseeable future.
Or if a friend of mine sued my neighbour, things might get a little frosty between me and my neighbour, and I still have to live next to them. Not to say the neighbour should get away with it, but it's a consideration 🙁
It can take a while for things to come through. It sounds like he should be prosecuted, but it's not the crime of the century.
On the other hand, I had some charming neighbours from down the road come over on Christmas morning and accuse me of keying their cars (rather than asking if I'd seen anything the night before - call me Sherlock but I reckon it's far more likely to be someone without kids that hated them before that point and was out on the piss the night before...). Don't know who did it, but I was glad my neighbours had already been punished for their behavior.
Good point Nicko, that may rule out Court action
To counter nicko74's point, if my neighbour keyed a friend's car and was caught red handed, things would get beyond frosty unless it was very much out of character and he proactively sought to put things right. Do you really think you would have him knocking at the door offering to pay up if he hadn't been caught? Do you think this is the first car that's been vandalised? Do you think everyone should have to suck up higher insurance premiums and/or driving about with vandalised paintwork?
Perhaps more importantly, do you think that his behavior could escalate?
Friend was parked outside another friends house
Apparently one of the comments which the PC will have in his notes was, ‘I f-ing hate that car’, so the issue probably is parking
Is friend 1 often outside friend 2's house or is the neighbour a bit on the swivel-eyed side ?
The guy is a coward, Police had to visit him twice, first time he wouldn't answer the door. My friends don't want to do anything to antagonize the situation and certainly no sort of violence or revenge. Payment to restore the damage and hopefully further action taken by the authorities is all they are hoping for hence my post asking for advice on how best to do that.
Anyway thanks again everyone!
Btw, this happened about a month ago now.
Culprit is possibly not the full ticket, could that explain police reluctance to proceed?
It's reassuring to know that you can avoid being prosecuted for a crime simply by not opening the door when the police pay a visit.
One thought to add, but it sucks. (If I understand correctly), your friend taking the neighbour to court or pursuing further could make it difficult for their friend (whose house they were parked outside) living next to the neighbour for the foreseeable future.
Or if a friend of mine sued my neighbour, things might get a little frosty between me and my neighbour, and I still have to live next to them. Not to say the neighbour should get away with it, but it’s a consideration
Really?
I suspect things have already gone waaaaayy past that point.....
My main advice would be to invest in some discreet CCTV covering any area of your property your arsehole neighbour may be able to access.
Chances are the most the old bastard will get is a caution, unless he's got history. But your friend should be speaking to your neighbourhood policing team to increase the chances he will get at least that.
This neighbour is 60 years old and is known to be grumpy towards other neighbours, drives an old tatty car but has a very nicely kept large Victorian semi detached house,
Key his house?
"This neighbour is 60 years old"
He's probably one of the younger ones on this forum then.
Community resolution or a conditional police caution is what’s called for here. neighbour agrees to apologise and cough up in exchange for no further action by the police. This would be a reasonable and proportionate use of police time and the car gets fixed. Suggest it to the bobbies maybe? Although I bet they are considering it anyway. They can’t just ignore it, it has to be resolved one way or another.
On the face of what has been written here, what a **** that 60 year old neighbour is, if stuff like this is not prosecuted by police then what hope do we have going forward? You can't admit to damaging other people's property to the police and get away scott-free, ffs!
Repair and Community Service minimum, imo.
Why do people keep getting all “ffs” and moaning that the police aren’t doing anything?
Nobody has said that he won’t be prosecuted.
Why do people keep getting all “ffs” and moaning that the police aren’t doing anything?
Nobody has suggested that he won’t be prosecuted.
Its bizarre isn’t it. Like the daily mail have got averyone believing that even when there is ample evidence that people walk away Scot free. In reality cases like this come to magistrates courts every day. The CPS may consider alternatives to prosecution, but “victims are at the centre of the justice system” now so would usually be consulted.
:-).
Its bizarre isn’t it. Like the daily mail have got averyone believing that even when there is ample evidence that people walk away Scot free.
There is a fairly strong irony though that this place would resemble the Daily Mail comments section, when we can’t even direct link to the actual comments section we now seem to be mimicking 😂
I would be giving the culprit the option to cover the cost of the repair, whilst making it clear you will pursue with the Police and SCC if he is not co-operative.
The long and short is you may remain with a scratched car, or out of pocket, but he will end up with a possible caution and court judgement against him. If he doesnt like the Police knocking, will he welcome the baliffs?
I had a similar sort of experience. A good friend of mine parked approx 3 houses up the road in front of someones house. They came home from work and could not park in "their" space. So they blocked him in and then refused to move to let him out.
Being a short tempered guy he lost and proceeded to try to lift the blocking car out of way, on his own??????
rather than call the 4 other 20 something lads in the commune I was living in to help move the car
He dented in the front wing and got arrested at a later date for criminal damage to a a motor vehicle.
The owners were happy to settle for a cash amount = to the agreed cost of the repair, there is an insurance compay approved cost model .
He however was not happy as it was kind of induced by them being a-holes , but he paid to avoid a criminal record. Then there might have been a karma rebalance at 0200 one morning,
So , maybe your friend could also agree to compensation instead of court , but not a dentmaster panel blow job, proper body shop repair.
CPS probably wont follow it through anyway, not in public interest, too small value, bigger fish to fry etc