To ask for advice - legal / driving DH being taken to claims court

[Grainyawaydays]

Around two years ago DH had notification from his car insurance that someone 300 miles away was making a claim against him. He was 100% home all day that day and we weren’t notified of the claim until about three months after it had gone in and he’d actually had a new car by this point. He trades them fairly regularly due to his line of work.
insurance said they would fight it and eventually it was closed about 18 months after the alleged accident.
He has received a letter today from the small claims court and the other driver is alleging he caused £12k worth of damage to her car and she didn’t get his details because he fled the scene. She is now taking him to court personally for £14k (£12k plus costs incurred).
Hes on about his fourth car since this happened and we have no way of proving that this wasn’t him. But equally she can’t prove it was - because it wasn’t! The police don’t seem to have been informed and I do think if someone caused £12k of damage to my car and drove off I’d have informed them at the time.
we can only assume she has recorded the reg incorrectly - since she’s saying it was a fairly major crash but the other driver left the scene? So it’s possible she hasn’t recorded the correct reg in the moment. Or it was a cloned plate.
Any advice? It looks like DH is going to have to go to court - 300 miles away - and get a solicitor.

This is what I was thinking, but I think you have to have been the organiser to see the report. You have to go into the calendar in teams, scroll back until you find the meeting, double click the meeting and on the next screen click 'chat' it should then display an attendance report if he was the organiser. If not surely he can contact the organiser to download it for him ?

It looks like she is saying that the car was damaged to the tune of £12k but she didn’t have it repaired and she’s claiming for depreciation of the car so when she sold it she sold it for £12l less? It’s so weird.
It is also weird that her insurance never responded to ours.

The problem with asking for colour and description she only has to type reg into dvla site and it tells you colour and make

If this is the first he’s heard then she already hasn’t followed proper procedure, as she should have sent him a “letter before action” before commencing proceedings.

It will have cost her £700 to start the claim.

If she isn’t using a solicitor then suggest you don’t either (at least at this stage), if you do you will soon wish you’d just paid her the £14k.

Gather the evidence that you can and make sure you submit a defence by the deadline.

She could but it would be highly unlikely especially if the area is so far away... what would your hubby be doing in that area driving but working on teams at the same time. Not likely.

Surely your insurance company should be handling this?

Does he have an iPhone? I’ve changed phones in the last couple of years but have just scrolled back through my camera roll and found a random photo from a couple of years ago and it shows the exact location I took the photo in. He would have to have taken a photo on that date, though.

Or would he have had to pass a toll (e.g. Dartford Crossing) to have got to where she alleges he was? If so, there’d be no record of him crossing on that date.

Small claims are £10,000 maximum.

I had this OP. I had a letter from my insurance company to say that, apparently, I had been involved in an accident in Glasgow when I wasn't even in Scotland. Luckily I had CCTV footage from DDs school of me dropping her off there.

In the end it turned out they had got the wrong registration by one number but he police had also been involved so it was slightly different to your DHs situation.

This sounds very odd. If so much damage had been caused why did her insurers not respond and why were the police not notified?

I would pass it on to your insurers but you could also check to see if you have any legal cover under any insurance policies if you do need to instruct a solicitor.

Sounds like she's trying her luck to get any money out of him. I'd confirm with work that he was indeed working that day. If the insurers have closed the case it's highly unlikely a judge will think differently.

My guess is she's hoping to panic him and that he'll offer her an amount of money. I'd just wait for the court date - but I doubt it will ever appear

Sorry no help with the specifics but sounds crazy that she could just say that any number plate has crashed into her car and caused this damage without any evidence of it or without informing the police back then. I can’t believe she’d even have a leg to stand on with this.

All he needs to do is pass it back to the insurance company - that is why you have one! They will deal with it.

Are you sure it is a genuine letter from the small claims court and not just a phishing expedition?

This is over the small claims limit but for small claims you can ask to move any court hearing to your local court so no need to travel.

Ok

A hit and run often results in and would have resulted in a police contract and a crime ref number, fact

Often, the victim would be asked to describe the hit and run person/s - that would be in her report

In your defence OP, I bet you she described a different bloke wearing different clothing of different weight, height facial features

Importantly, as the OP's ins was dealing with this - they need to be contacted and made aware of this and ensure they understand that your was advised in writing etc "case closed, no further action."

Let the insurance deal with it

OP, because of the line of work re your OH - does anyone else drive the same cars on his behalf??

What evidence did you provide your insurance to make them accept the fact your OH and the car was diffinetly hundreds of miles away from that area??

Has you OH ever been in that area and if so when??

Importantly, your insurance would have had to have evidence to state the car and the driver, ie your OH was not 300 miles away

She's an absolute chancer.

Exactly that

To make a different type of EG a personal claim costs laods more

I can't undertsand how she could have got your address, the DVLA wouldn't give it out

Yes they would:
https://www.gov.uk/request-information-from-dvla/request-information-about-another-vehicle-registered-keeper

I stand corrected - it does sound like you can just contact DVLA, say you havve been a victim of a hit and run and they give your address.
Sounds very dodgy

It’s all dodgy isn’t it?
The insurance closed it without paying out to her because they said there was no evidence and they’d asked for further information / photos of her car damage / info around the alleged accident and had received nothing.

Which also seems odd?

It closed a few months back and we assumed they was it. We have informed them of this turn of events and will see what they say.

Pretty sure they should take over the case for you. You were insured at the time of the accident and that’s what you have insurance for. Her failure to follow the usual process shouldn’t negate your contract with them.

FGS ask an actual lawyer and not a bunch of anonymous randoms on the internet.

Not quite the same situation but we were in a similar situation a few years ago. Just forward all the details to the insurance company. They are there to manage any claims against you, including in this case. We kept getting letters from the other woman's solicitor insisting we pay x or y would happen. it was so stressful. But each time, our insurance comapny would tell us to send it to them and they'd deal with it.

in the end, they paid a barrister to go to court with DH and sort it out.

So doing what you can to prove you weren't anywhere near is not a bad idea in case you need to pass that information along to the solicitor/insurance company. Depending on the company your DH works for, they might have ISP info on where he logged on from that day. Also, notwithstanding the meetings, did he not send any messages/emails during the day that could be pulled?

I would inform the Police on the basis it is a scam.