Friends stolen bike - identified and thief arrested

On Holiday · 26 Oct 2012 at 13:17

My friends dad had his bike stolen earlier this year, long story short;

He left the keys in it, went into the shop about 10feet away, lad jumped out of a car, jumped on bike, stalled it then rode off.

Insurance say they won't pay anything as the keys were in it, but now that they've caught the thief and my friends dad has identified his bike - what can he do to get it back/claim costs off the thief if possible?

JoeF1 · 26 Oct 2012 at 13:19

I can see this thread being trolled with the keys being left in.

But would he be able to take the thief to court for claims? Never had anything major stolen so...

On Holiday · 26 Oct 2012 at 13:24

Yeah I expect that, but end of the day, he's obviously learnt his lesson? It's fair on the insurance to say they won't pay out due to keys left in it.
But with the bike thief caught (on bail) and the bike possibly still in one piece, just wondering what options he'll have now?

PU7E · 26 Oct 2012 at 13:43

He'll most likely have to pay police recovery costs to get the bike back, after that I guess it'll be down to the small claims court for damages at a guess.

VoG · 26 Oct 2012 at 17:05

I imagine the scrote who nicked it will either be on the dole or a full time scally, in which case, any attempt at clawing costs back from him will result in the usual pittance per week being awarded, which said scrote will ignore within a matter of months, if not weeks.

As vomit inducing as it sounds, the best thing your mates dad can do is chalk it down to experience, stick his hand in his own pocket, & move on with his life.

stuman · 26 Oct 2012 at 19:50

try to find the name of the "see you next tuesday" then go and recover the costs himself.

Mr-White · 26 Oct 2012 at 20:27

You can try the small claims court but I doubt he'll have anything. Better off just kicking his teeth in, those kind of people won't learn any other way.

MW