Insurance nightmare take 2

Pebbles

Pebbles

Pebbles

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I posted months ago about my ex being knocked off his motorbike and the following palava trying to get the drivers insurance company to pay up. This was last June. Well, the insurance stuff ground to a halt on the basis they were waiting for the police report, which couldnt be released until they had prosecuted her for dangerous driving. So today is the case....naive me thinks it'll be this woman stood up in front of a couple of magistrates, ex possibly called to say his side of the story, end of.

He's just called to say there's lawyers and witnesses and evidence and photographs, he's apparently being had up for harrassment after he supposedly phone her 10 times in a week after the accident. First he's heard about it..plus we were camping in the middle of nowhere in Cornwall on the dates he's supposed to have called her. The police have been sent off to find the details on the harrassment thing, which will consist of a compliments slip posted through our door asking him to call the Met which we found when we got back from Cornwall. He did return the call a couple of times, but the person he was supposed to speak to never called back. She apparently has some **** hot lawyer, the prosecution has some rooky who doesnt know his backside from his elbow and its all a NIGHTMARE :( Also her 'witness' who she conjured up 3 months after the fact is there although the police have no record of him being on the scene.

All this because I assume she doesnt want to lose her no claims bonus.

My head hurts :(
 
People will try anything sometimes to save some money - especially with things like this!

I had a car accident a couple of years ago when some stupid woman reversed into the side of me in a car park. Took some details, called to confirm when I got back and spoke to her husband to started shouting at me about it being my fault! Luckily when I threatened to take them to court and got my insurance company to send them letters stating the same thing, they backed down and paid up. :p

Still - reminds me of the cheek of some people :mad:
 
Sounds like a very messy situation. Every day we seem to be taking a step closer to the USA with ridiculous verdicts being somehow thrashed out in court. Even when/if it's proved that she has made up storys about the "harrassment" (wont these phone calls be on a telephone bill or Bt haveing evidence of them?) you can bet she won't be in anymore trouble, almost as if she has nothing to loose by pulling a fast one.

Friend of mine got hit by a car driving on the wrong side of the road a year ago, luckily my friend managed to get the guys registration plate before he drive off. Called the police straight away and upon turning up to the other drivers house found the car in the middle of the drive with a huge dent in the front.

Turned out the guy was three times over the limit and tried to assault one of the policemen. Somehow it took over a year before my friend got his money from the insurance as the drunk guy never admitted to it, took about 30 letters from solicitor to solicitor and two court appearances before it was sorted :-/ All the time my friend got no compensation for not haveing a car for a year.
 
As a reassurance, even if the other party is found not guilty of dangerous driving that doesn't mean the claim will end - the burden of proof differs from criminal cases (beyond reasonable doubt) to civil cases (on the balance of probabilities).

The reason your Solicitors are waiting on the court result is that if the person is found guilty then liability will not be an issue at all and so it is unlikely they will be able to recover many costs relating to investigating liability before a judgement is made either way, but whilst a conviction makes life much easier it won't be a barrier to successfully claiming.

For future advice as well, if you couldn't get hold of anyone at the Met, send a letter confirming your attempts to contact them by telephone, at least that will be put on record as co-operating.
 
Sheesh Pebs! :eek:

Do you have any photos or diaries or anything like that, or were you with him 24/7 when the calls were allegedly made? Anything to back up his story and disprove hers basically. IANAL but I think it's only harrassment if there isn't a good reason for the contact. If you can disprove this one thing then it calls the rest of her version of events into question.

Plus if the charge is dangerous driving then I think she's probably trying to save herself a ban rather than her NCB.
 
Similar thing happened to me once. I was driving down an A-road in my car and a girl pulled out without looking, straight into the side of me - which in turn punted me into oncoming traffic where I was hit again. I thought the insurance work would be easy as the incident was pretty straight forward. But no, she came up with a total work of fiction (about how I was speeding, overtaking another car and running into her :rolleyes: ) all in an attempt to keep her no-claims. Fortunately, I was able to demonstrate quite easily that she was full of carp and it was all sorted out. People will try anything :mad:
 
I had y car broken into last year whilst at a hotel and alos a few weeks later some numtie pulled out onto a round about into the side of me.


The Hotel "as a gesture of goodwill" paid for the repairs to the car, and the bloke (nice chap infact) admited full responsibility for pulling out into the side of me, (he sent me a copy of the letter he sent to my insurance company admiting full responsibility and a bottle of Booze).

Why I have kept all my no claims, infact earnt another year as these were no fault, my insurance company didn't have to pay money in either case.

Why then did my renewel quote go from £690 to $1810? I phoned them and they confirmed that this was an actual quote.

(Found insurance after I phoned a broker and got it sorted for little over £500)

They tried to tell me that i was not able to change insurnace companies after I have claimed of them for 12 months after the claim, it said so in the T&C's.

Idiots didn't check the records and see that I hadn't claimed of them.

One snotty letter from them saying I'm behind my payments, one real snotty letter back from my broker explaining there mistake. I got a letter back seeming like I had technicaly not claimed against them but it was a grey area and won't pursue for further costs.

(not quiet an Insurance company admitting to messing up, but as close as we an ever get).
 
Treefrog said:
So, you didn't claim, you weren't at fault, the insurance company didn't have to pay anything and they still increased the premium??

WTF?
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I know, Isurance companies is a license to print money.

I don't understand how they came up with that figure, I asked and they said it was very complicated calculations, I replied I have a Bsc in maths, i'm sure i'd follow it, but still no insight into how many dice they needed to roll to find a figure like £1800
 
Bad insurance company, IMO.

I remember having an accident (head-on collision) years ago, and my insurance company paid me within a week as they had no doubt whose fault it had been. The other driver was trying to weasel out of it but my company paid up without any problems at all. Even gave me more than I'd paid for the car!!
 
callmeBadger said:
I got a letter back seeming like I had technicaly not claimed against them but it was a grey area and won't pursue for further costs.
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Yep, I had that two years back. I was in a stationery line of traffic, and a motorcyclist came flying up on the left inbetween the line of traffic and parked cars (yes, stupid stupid thing to do). A girl opened her door to get out of a parked car and the biker crashed straight through it, lost control and slid under the back of my car. I helped him up, got his bike out of the road and then got all his details, as it looked like my back bumper had been hammered. I did everything by the book, and contacted my insurance company straight away. I then found that the bumper was only dirtied up, it wasn't actually damaged. So I contacted the insurance guys again, told them that there was no need to press ahead with the claim and left it at that, they were happy and I was happy. That is until renewal came around and my premium had gone up by nearly £100. I contacted them and thay said the same as what i've quoted above. Basically, they still saw it as a claim even though it wasn't. They too agreed to reduce the premium down a little, as it was a "grey area".
 
Good luck...insurance in this country is insane, I always wanted get a crappy car and drive around the country but any insurance I find is at least 4x the value of the car that I am after.
 
pyro said:
Good luck...insurance in this country is insane, I always wanted get a crappy car and drive around the country but any insurance I find is at least 4x the value of the car that I am after.
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Hehe - I know that one. My first Cavalier cost me £70 with 6 months MOT, and about £200 for 6 months insurance. I taxed it, ran it for six months, then scrapped it for £40 on the day the Mot ran out. Effectively £260 for six months car hire. :)
 
I had the same issue with a taxi driver who took me off my bike. It went to small claims court and I won. Im glad I spent the extra £15 for my free legal cover.

He pulled out of standing traffic of which I was filtering past to do a U-Turn. Totally illegal even though filtering is a grey area. He got his taxi mates to make up some crap but in court I had a barrister represent me and he completely owned the taxi driver and his witness. I made sure I went to the taxi drivers address, took pics of damage and proved the damage could not have been made in the accident the taxi driver described.

Also, they tried accusing me of speeding etc, and that when on a bike you "wobble" at slow speed. So they did a good job of screwing themselves over conflicting theories.

In your case you can pay £200 or so to get her phone records by a private investigator and get the harassment case dropped on that evidence.
 
Treefrog said:
Hehe - I know that one. My first Cavalier cost me £70 with 6 months MOT, and about £200 for 6 months insurance. I taxed it, ran it for six months, then scrapped it for £40 on the day the Mot ran out. Effectively £260 for six months car hire. :)
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I'm looking at 106 for £450 and the insurance is £1300...
 
She was found guilty! *faints with relief!!* 4 points and a total of 400 pounds fine/costs.

Hopefully (although Im not holding my breath) the insurance claim should be straightforward now.
 
Pebbles said:
She was found guilty! *faints with relief!!* 4 points and a total of 400 pounds fine/costs.
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So it doesnt look like she risked anything by lying in court or over pleeding guilty in the first place. Probably a no win no fee lawer or something aswell.
 
Dont talk to me about insurance and the legal system. I was with Direct Line ages ago and when someone went into the back of me (he was on a mobile, I was stationary, he admitted fault and Churchills paid up straight away), my premium with Direct line went up. I questioned this and was basically told that now I had been involved in an accident it was more likely to happen to me in the future. WTF?

Anyway, fast forward to November 5th year before last. On the M25 again staionary, a truck driver decides he would rather watch the fireworks than concentrate on driving and made me the first Renault laguna coupe convertible. I am off work for a month with chronic backache, lost my laptop and clothing. Was going back and forth for 6 months with the insurance trying to get compensation for at least the lost property, never mind the lost hours (i am a contractor. No work, no pay!) Even though I have been awarded £2500 in damages, I have yet to receive a penny. Its no wonder people would rather chance getting caught with no insurance than pay the robbing ********
 
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