Could bloody cry

[funsizedninja]

Hi fellow Mumsnetters. Long time lurker but first time poster. Just need a handhold. Somebody hit my car back in august. It was parked outside my friends house and her neighbour opposite rolled off his drive right into the side of my beautiful new car. He calimed he forgot to out his handbrake on . He knocked on the door and apologised. He was really adamant he would pay for a local garage to fix it and got angry when i said no as it would have voided my warrenty. Grudingly he exchanged details. Only now he is claiming "mistaken identity" and saying he never hit my car. The neighbour saw it happen and has told the insurance, but he is claiming he wasnt there as his wife is claiming they had gone into town shopping for the day and has receipts. No... that proved SHE went out not him! Anyhoo - the police were at his address less than half hour before - looked like they were seizing a van. I have contacted them to ask if they will confirm just the time and date they were there to prove he was at the premesis but nothing back from them. Im so so upset. Chances are the lying bastard will get away with it and i will end up with a claim for a collision for a car that was occupied!! Sorry for the rant. Has somebody experienced similar with a good outcome?? I would like to add i was not illegally parked, blocking anyones drive etc. It was parked across the road opposite him with PLENTY of swing room. He his my driver door. AIBU to be furious? For gods sake i was 300 miles from home. How on gods name would i be that far away, have a photo of him, his address, phone number, insurance company, and car make model and reg if its MISTAKEN IDENTITY?!?

Thankyou for the replies - the ombudsman i hadnt thought of! His insurance company will not deal with other companies via phone. Only via letter. So they they take the full 28 days after receiving to reply via letter to my insurance "our client says no..." ( little britain voice) im so tempted to text him! Say he is commuting perjury and i will take it further. But then that Makes me as bad as him. I dont want to put ins names with it being a public site and all - dont need more drama from daily fail lol x

Go to the police. He's committing fraud. The police will be able to conduct a proper investigation and hopefully interview the idiot. And get onto your insurance company. The fact that he's only now denying involvement makes it look very dubious. His wife could also be prosecuted for perverting the course of justice, for supply in a false alibi.

I understand how frustrating it is, I had something similar happen, other driver accepted they were involved but changed story so it looked like I was partly liable. I had very little evidence though and had to accept 50/50. It is horrible but you have to leave it to insurance company. I am now thinking about getting a dash cam.

It sounds really annoying but at least you have someone to pursue - I have twice had someone crash into my parked car and cause extensive damage without even stopping.

So if he didn't hit your car and wasn't there where did you get his insurance details from op? Did you imagine them?

Let them deal with it.

The insurance company of the teen who went into the back of us dragged their heels even down to the deadline of the cheque. Teen's mum tried to get us to claim privately then got stroppy when we wanted to go via insurance company saying all sorts( she wasn't even there,was him and and mates).Dp had really bad whiplash and wanted it done properly in case it comes back to bite him later. Anyhoo we thought we'd be out of pocket but got it all covered(car and whiplash).

My mum had a young lad hit her and then refused to admit to insurers. Small claims court, very easy. She won. you do it yourself, very little cost.

We also refused to accept their sum offers. Got proper medical advice but they kept offering less than was suggested. Stuck it out and got it.

If you had his details how could it be mistaken identity? How would you know his insurance details if it wasn't him? Your insurance company needs to be a bit more bloody insistent on your behalf!

Don't start legal proceedings at this stage yourself, there will be a term in your insurance policy saying the insurers have the right to do this and you could invalidate it, unless they refuse to take action.

Don't assume you're bound to lose without the police's evidence - ultimately if it had to go to court, you and the other witness can give evidence, the neighbour will give evidence, and basically the judge can decide who is more credible. I suspect the judge will take the view that you really have no reason whatsoever to lie - after all, if you had seen someone else hit your car, why wouldn't you have gone after them? Your photographs will also help - I assume your camera or phone shows when the photos were taken?

However, it could be worth you contacting the police yourself to try to gee them up into answering the query about their visit earlier in the day. But I really don't think they will do anything about the possible fraud, they will take the view that it's a civil matter.

You should repost in Legal for some expert opinions.

Insurance fraud is a criminal offence, not a civil one, as is proving a false alibi. You may find he backs down when you inform his insurance company you are going to the police, although he's kind of stuffed now as he's lied to his insurance company. The minute you lie about the circumstances around an RTC you commit a crime.

Sorry to hear that you're having such grief OP.

Unfortunately I think this is a salutatory reminder that these days, as we all have smart phones on us, that not only do we need to take pictures of the evidence, we need to be recording the other person and what they're saying, pretty much for as long as you're talking to them.

Much more difficult to dispute that you were there or not if there is a video (or even audio) of you discussing the accident...

Even a photograph of the person at the scene with the metadata giving the time etc would help to show that they were there at the time that the accident happened and not miles away as they claim.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing unfortunately. I hope that the insurance company buck up and do their job, there have been some very apt points raised on this thread to raise with them. And I'm marking this down in my brain as a reminder, should I ever find myself in your position (easy to forget when shocked, hence good to think of it in advance) to take as many photos and videos as possible, so a thank you from me for that!

Insurance fraud is certainly a criminal offence, but that would mean the neighbour defrauding his own insurers, which obviously he isn't doing. Providing a false alibi is also only an offence in relation to a criminal action, and the damage itself wasn't a crime. The police may take an interest if a civil court finds that he's been lying, but I doubt that they would do so before then.

Double check that your insurance company have made contact with your witness. DH was involved in an accident (he was parked, school bus drove into him on a narrow lane) but fortunately had a witness. Gave witness details to insurance company but it was only when DH chased them that they actually contacted witness for a statement to support DH. Bus driver lied on his statement (said he wasn't moving) but because DH had a witness he won.

This admitting responsibility at the scene and then denying everything seems to be the norm these days.

A car driver pulled out from the kerb into a U-turn and my cyclist son went straight into him and over the bonnet, smashing his front teeth and splitting his mouth open, as well as incurring concussion and jarring his neck and spine.

Driver terribly sorry, would pay everything etc. Son got the initial estimate for his bike repairs and the emergency dental work he had to have done (£800+) and rang the driver who now claims he was stationary at the side of the road and that my son was riding too close and hit his wheel which was on an angle. Claimed to have a witness, and refused to give his insurance details. (Hhis is slightly complicated because son called the police and they said they didn't need to come out because he was well enough to call them. He also hadn't realised how badly he was hurts didn't immediately go for medical treatment. He was in shock.)

Now we've had to get the police and a solicitor involved - especially as son's dental work has been estimated at over 3 grand.

I think it's a way that driver's seem to go to avoid having police involvement at the most crucial time - immediately after the accident when there is still visible damage to their vehicle and skid marks etc which will show who was moving and how fast.

We are in the middle of something similar right now! About a month ago a guy opened his van door about half a meter in front of my husbands car, he hit the door obviously! Guy apologised at the scene, insurance details exchanged, I give a witness statement as I was in the passenger seat (the side that got hit!) 3 weeks later my husband gets a phonecall from his insurance company saying the guy is claiming the door had been open for about 1 minute and he wasn't in the van at the time!! Apparently my husband drove down a straight street and just drove right into his van door. Lying little scumbag. So we have had to pay £150 excess in order to get car back from garage but will be fighting it all the way, as no chance the other guy is getting away with telling complete lies!! Some people clearly have zero morals. I hope you get it resolved but I can't imagine it will be without a fair amount of stress unfortunately.

Your best bet will be to pursue a claim through your own insurance company and then they will try to recover their money from his insurance company.

If they are successful your no claims and excess will be reinstated and refunded. Just because he's denying it doesn't mean he will get away with it but it may have to be pushed quite far by your insurance company to prove it was him.

I should have said 'should' not will. No one can tell if they will refund or not