I have a vehicle at a holiday property in France which isn't legal to drive on the roads. I placed an advert looking for recommendations of haulage companies people had used and on an expat site and was contacted by a company. They were moving some people to another part of France and would pick up my car on the way home on Saturday 7th February and drop it off at my UK address on Monday 9th, cash on delivery, which I understand is a way a lot of haulage companies operate.
Had lots of contact over the preceding 6 weeks with the company everything was on track - all done by email so clearly set out. On 28th March, they emailed and asked for £100 deposit into their personal bank account, which we paid on 30th March and then communication with them stopped. I sent two emails asking them to confirm receipt and the details for Saturday, we started trying to call them but no answer. DH (a glass half full kind of guy) said they were probably on the road doing the other delivery. Me and the kids came to France to deal with the collection of the car, DH stayed in UK for delivery so bank holiday weekend apart. Saturday morning came, still no contact, DH eventually got in touch with the woman who runs the company, who said she would ring her partner and check with him and then call us back. She didn't call back. DH eventually managed to get in touch with the partner who told us that the previous job had been cancelled three days before and that they wouldn't be coming to get our car after all.
I've emailed and asked for them to return the £100 to my account by Wednesday at the latest. I've said if they do this I'll know they were genuine and weren't deliberately trying to misrepresent me to obtain funds and we'll draw a line under the matter. I seriously expect that they will not be refunding me my money. I know that I will be able to make a County Court claim to obtain a refund, and obviously I'll contact Trading Standards for their area and lodge a complaint, but I truly believe that the day she asked me for the deposit was the day the other people had cancelled the job and that she asked for that deposit with the full intention of not collecting our car or cancelling our job and therefore, in my opinion, fraudulently misrepresented herself to obtain money from me. Would the police be interested in this and can I get them involved?
Obviously I'm really annoyed at the moment, DH and I don't really have a spare £100 to throw away on nothing, and we've still got to pay to get our car back from France and am now having a rubbish Easter weekend with me and the DCs not with DH, any advice would be gratefully received.