Police misplaced/lost our stolen then recovered property

[lilacgirl]

We were burgled back at the beginning of May 2008. At the end of May 2008, the police recovered an item that was taken from our house. I went to the station to identify it and prove it was ours, they said they needed to hold onto it until the case went to court, so we waited to hear from them. Almost a year on, I started to wonder why we hadn't heard, so I contacted the police to see what was happening and when we would get the item back. Much toing and froing ensued and the outcome of it so far is that the item went to the property office, but seems to have got lost in the system, or potentially has been returned to the accused as the case never went to court. As a result the item now cannot be found. The officer looking into the case is suggesting compensation for the lost item from the police. My question, really, is twofold. (1) has anyone had a similar story, what was the outcome? (2) my husband thinks we can?t claim compensation from the police, because we?ve already been compensated by the insurance company for the loss in the first place. He sees a further compensation claim as a fraud. What does anyone else think?

I see where your husband is coming from.

You haven't lost out if you have got it back from the insurance company, have you?

Why on earth would you claim twice if you have already been compensated by your insurance company?

No we haven't lost out, I can see his point of view, however, I also think we are entitled to the item coming back to us. Looks like this now won't happen as the police have lost it

MagicDragon, the 2nd 'claim' would be on the police, aren't we entitled to have our property back - regardless of whether it's been replaced or not?

We you could claim compensation from the Police but then you would be obliged to give that money to the insurance company, as currently they are the people who 'own' your bit of property

I think that legally if your insurance has compensated you for the item then it belongs to the insurance company not you. If you had got it back you probably would have had to pay back the compensation to the insurance company.

There's no reason why you shouldn't put in a complaint about the police handling of the item though, especially if it's a possiblity that they gave it back to the burglers.

I can see DH is in the right (makes a change!) His view was that we should repay the insurance company when we got the stolen item back anyway, however, they fleeced us in the beginning so we weren't going to! Guess we complain about the police handling to the police complaints commission bran?

Complain to the force thats dealing with it. Its not really an IPCC issue I don't think