the exact same thing happened to me. I just ended up leaving the car for scrap

Of course they have to pay - that is why it is known as the "criminal justice system". If they had told the police that they were criminals then they would not have had to pay the money and could have received compensation.
And people wonder why so many people want to leave the country?

Perhaps if all that effort had been put into catching the criminal then the criminal could have been charged for repair of the car, plus Police time involved.

Instead the Police seem to have stolen the car themselves and sold it back to the owner. It's like Robin Hood stealing from the poor and giving to the Sheriff of Nottingham.

It's a fair cop but society's to blame

If they'd caught (or bothered to look for) the person who broke into the car, the chances are they'd have spent less time locked up than the car did!!!

And if the police had just left the car whereby it was trashed by the local neds.......... Can't win. It's not their fault it's a banger. They have a duty to protect someones property - if that means carting the car away so it doesn't end up as a bonfire, then so be it.

The gentleman concerned's problem is with the company that uplifted it. If he has a problem then maybe he should be contacting them. Ultimately, he is insured, which will normally cover cost. It's down to him if he's agreed to a high excess or has unprotected no claims. The guy's apparently a motoring journalist - he should know the system inside out.

Just fontaine i will agree with you on that one

Love me.
Loathe me.
At least you ain't ignoring me

So why if it was only worth £200 did they bother to pay £300 to get it back???

The real reason for the police removing the car is that it was in good running order, and could in its insecure state have easily been stolen, and then been involved in an accident, causing death or injury to other people.

If it had been in a driveway, ie not "garaged" on the road free of charge to the owner, they would probably have left it alone, or just immobilised it.

We knew the owner was away on a good holiday and decided "Lets sort this plonker out and work it up him"

All things being equal, in another case, except the police do not remove the vehicle and the car is actually damaged beyong repair, or at least to a great extent, would the owner be in a position to sue the Police for dereliction of duty in not protecting his property - if that is, as it seems, their 'duty bound' responsibility?

Or, as it appears in all things bureaucratically - they have a way out of it?

I would have told them to keep the car, or i'd see them in court...surely this is a con!!

The police do it again, law abideing people getting done over by the law, they should be ashamed.

When are they going to start solving and preventiing crime

#16 - Derek, how would you have felt if this had happened to you and the car was left in situ, allowing the neds of your parish to turn it into modern art or a BBQ on wheels?

The Police are not charging him for the removal- the recovery company is doing this. As i said earlier, it's not for the police to sit and work out whether a recovery is a financially astute move. If anything, why in the name of all thats holy, would someone, bother with taking out an insurance policy for a £200 car, with a £200 excess? Does this not defeat the object?

Would you expect the police to spend an inordinate amount of time with the vehicle trying to resecure it or tow it to a safe location? Would you then complain that they're not doing the myriad other tasks that the majority of people complain are not getting done? No win situation.

The same thing happened to me. I had to pay £190 to buy back my car after the window was smashed. I wanted to leave the car with the recovery company as the car was of little value. I was told that they would scrap the car after 21 days and pursue me in court for £150 recovery and £20 a day for storage up to that point.

so the 'police' (effectivly) took the legally parked etc car without the owners permission - i think that's a criminal offence known as TWOCing - i hope they'll arrest themselves :-)