Hi folks

Thanks to Strathclyde Police and my mate who is an inspector, he spotted my stolen lapierre zesty been ridden by a junky scrote 4months after it was stolen and managed to get some sterling police work done spotting the guy again and arresting him tonight. Only o.5miles from my house

Just been and id’d the bike and now got it back. A couple of dings but all parts okay….. Now the strange bit. Thief denied the crime and bought it from a car boot sale near Lanark for £80 despite being a junkie and not driving. As the police lifted him from the street with the bike the Proc Fiscal are not authorising a search warrant. Guy is getting bailed now and will probably be getting rid of all the other stuff over the next day or two! Aaarrrghh

Now the insurance with Aviva, had £4.5k of stuff stolen but insurance co would only pay out £2,500 due to unsecured outbuilding clause. Legally, do I need to let them know it has been recovered? Frame has been damaged with a small ding on the tt and paintwork is scratched in a couple of places. Could split the bike for parts or sell a full bike.

Unlikely to recover anything else at this stage.

What do the collective think? It is a 2011 zesty 514

Alan

If you’ve been paid out its not yours any more. Get in touch with insurers, they may just write it off, better to be honest.

Sell it for parts and keep the frame incase they ask question?

Maybe you should write about your proposed fraud on an Internet forum??

it is not proposed fraud as the op asked “legally, do I need to…”

also, if they are only paying out for £2500 worth of contents, maybe the list that makes up that value does not include the bike…

I agree best course of action is to ring the insurers, but disagree that doing otherwise necessarily constitutes fraud.

Yes, only a question!

I suppose it would be different for a like for like claim!

Payout was only a proportion of what was stolen.

What mickolas said, was there £2.5k of unrecovered stuff?

And odds are they won’t want the bike, what an insurance company going to do with damaged 2nd hand bike? Even if they split it to parts and go the work experience tea boy to list everything on ebay it’d probably cost them more than they’d get for it. And that’s before someone sues them for it breaking.

Tell them so you’re 100% above board.

I had a similar thing happen and I informed the insurer – tey told me to keep it or sell it on to recover my excess. Win..!

^ +1. Just I was gonna say. Keep it staright , its not yours right now but you’ll almost certainly get to keep it.

Sorry Alan – late night excessive sarcasm.

Was the bike stolen from the ‘unsecured outbuilding’?

A ‘junky scrote’ eh?

The usual stw hand-wringing bedwetters will be along soon to point out the error of your ways… 😆

Tell your insurer. They paid out on a claim , whether a proportion or not, and therefore the bike is not ‘yours’. I work for an insurer and we have always told the customer to keep the recovered bike and do with as they wish – as earlier posts have said there is no value in an insurer taking back the bike they will not recover any of their costs.

Why was your outshed ‘unsecured’? Does that mean it was unlocked? 😐

Phone the insurers. When I was in the same situation some time ago I was told to ‘dispose’ of the bike by the insurers.

I held on for it in the loft for another couple of years just in case they changed their minds and then sold it on cheaply, basically covered the excess I,d lost.

Whereabouts are you? Generally I mean- always nice to know!

Why was your outshed ‘unsecured’? Does that mean it was unlocked?

I guess it’s more likely that the locks/doors didn’t meet all the criteria in the small print.