Last Saturday, I returned to my car in the supermarket car park, to find a lady standing next to it, studying the bumper, and the side of her car. When she saw me she told me I'd hit her car. There was a scratch along the side of her (black) car, but I had no knowledge of having hit it. Hadn't felt a thing. I said, politely, that I couldn't see how I'd caused that much damage without feeling any impact, but she insisted it must have been me. She said she'd rubbed and cleaned at the scratch on her car, and that it had contained red paint (from my car.) She also said there was a scratch on my bumper, with black paint in it. (There was a small scratch, I thought it had been there a while.) She took lots of photos on her phone, so did I.
I didn't admit to anything, and really couldn't see how I'd scratched a deep mark into her car without feeling any impact. However, I couldn't prove it wasn;t me - and I know my driving wasn't great that morning: I had a lot on my mind, and had taken a corner clumsily in the car park. So I sort of thought that I must have done it!
She phoned me yesterday and said she'd had a quote from a local garage, for £180 to sort out the deep scratch. This garage doesn't deal with insurance. She then said she had other jobs on the car that she wanted this garage to do, and would be happy to accept £150 if that was ok. I said I wanted her to get a second quote for comparison, and that I would probably need to do anything through my insurance company as I don't have spare cash. She seemed happy and said she'd get back to me with a second quote. Not sure what to do. I can't prove it wasn't me, but I can't see how I scratched it like that without knowing. I'm not sure if she's pulling a fast one, or whether to just pay up. Any thoughts?