Taxi driver claiming to be out of the country at time of crash

[Butterflyrainbow12]

Wonder if anyone has advice. I was crashed into by a taxi about 6 weeks ago, police wouldn’t come as nobody was injured. Got a crime number, took photos of his car, registration, taxi licence plate. We have just had our car returned and all was going well. Today we received a call from our insurance to tell us that the taxi driver is claiming he wasn’t in the country at the time and it wasn’t him. Now it obviously was his car or how else would they have traced him, or the details provided of name/phone number given must have been his. The insurance are now saying we will not get out excess returned.
Plan is to call the police tomorrow to discuss with them. We have not long had someone else ram the side of our car in a hit and run and had to lay the excess on this. I feel really down about this because it was a brand new car and we have had it with us less time than it’s been in the garage for repairs. The police were unable to locate any info on the hit and run driver though didn’t investigate till days later. Feeling really let down by all this. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Any chance you got a photo of the driver?
Any witnesses?
Was it a black cab or a private hire vehicle?

Surely his insurance still needs to pay out as it was his vehicle?
Or is he claiming his vehicle was stolen?

It would be easy enough for them to ask for proof of ticket/travel documents and check that the info on his booking/tickets matches the name on his taxi license.

I have a blurry photo that my partner took right after he crashed into us but I think it’s clear enough to identify him. Or so I’m hoping, literally just remembered about this photo after I posted so have zoomed in and sent to the insurance. They didn’t say just requested we sent all the evidence over again the photos and details, crime no. No idea why when they have and it before. I’ve just managed to find him on the local authorities private hire spreadsheet so it’s definitely a licensed taxi, albeit he only had his license for 6 weeks at that point!

You would think they would request this. I’m hoping that the insurance will fight this. They spoke to my husband today who isn’t great on the phone due to his hearing so I’m going to call them back tomorrow to confirm. He could possibly have let someone else use his taxi whilst on holiday but then the license is his responsibility so surely more trouble if someone else has used it than just owning up if it was him. I’d think if someone else uses your taxi license that would be cause to lose it!

🤯 So much information is held on where cars go without us knowing.

20yrs ago I was stopped by the police doing a routine census. They were particularly interested in me as I had recently bought a car and it still had Irish plates. They knew that I had been to London, Newcastle and York in the past week!

I would pursue with the police! Love a pursuit when 100% innocent!

Thanks @Symphony830 It’s crazy that’s why I don’t understand how they couldn’t trace the first hit and run as it was near a local police station and a major stadium! Most definitely cctv in the surrounding areas but nope. Determined this one isn’t getting away with it too 💪

@Butterflyrainbow12 problem with cctv though is even if there's a camera right there, unless it's pointing in the right direction you're screwed. It's infuriating how often we check with cctv operators if the camera at an incident caught it only to be told no it was facing another direction 🤦🏻‍♀️

It may not help your insurance claim but report the details to the local authority taxi licensing department, in case someone else was driving his taxi 'on his behalf' which is obviously illegal and might lead to him losing his taxi licence.

@Redburnett i looked this up tonight he and it has a waning bar across the top saying if it’s a road traffic offence not to contact them but the police. Think I will send one in anyway just in case.

You aren't reporting a road traffic offence. The accident is somewhat irrelevant to the LA. However, they should be interested if someone was operating his taxi without the appropriate license.

If his car was involved in the accident then I am puzzled as to why him being out of the country is relevant. The car is insured against 3rd party risks. That is why, even if your car is stolen, if it damages someone else's property your insurance is liable. I know that to my own cost, as my stolen car, some years ago, was crashed into a parked car🥺.

It depends on the policy. The insurance company may be able to refuse cover if the vehicle is being driven by someone who is not a named driver. Also, if the driver has their own insurance, that may provide third party cover when they are driving someone else's car, so the claim should be against them.

I cannot comment on your case, but liability for third party damage is with the driver (assuming they caused the accident), not the car.

If he was out of the country then his passport would have been stamped, finally a Brexit benefit!

Your insurance company needs to clarify is he saying someone else was driving his car, if so who? Or is he saying the car was stolen, in which case you need the police report. Or is he saying some other taxi driver cloned his registration and taxi license plates, again, police report.

Keep repeating over and over again to your insurance company not to drop this and he is committing fraud.

Thank you for these replies. The police number I’ve been given is continually engaged so I might just pop to the station this afternoon if I can’t get through. Just about to call my insurance back and see what they say. Really appreciate the advice. @Brahumbug that’s really shocking 😮

Contact the authority that issued his licence. They won't be impressed if someone other than the person named has been driving around in a taxi marked with their credentials. Losing it might jog his memory a bit.

Went to the police today and he gave me some lines to feed to the insurance company so have done that and sent them the blurry picture with his face. The name (not a name I was able to pronounce or write down) the police took at the accident (by phone) was different to the name I found on the license database. The officer did try twice to phone the council taxi dept but it was constantly engaged. He has said regardless of who was driving the car it’s his car/licence and responsibility and that we have provided the insurance company with more than enough evidence to settle the case. Any further issues we are to go back. Just waiting now to see what the insurance come back with, think this may take a while. In the meantime I have filled in the online form for private hire complaints.

The photos you took will be times and dates on your phone. It doesn't matter where he says he was, you can prove it was his car by the pictures

Definitely report it to the licensing authority - most require notification of accidents so that in itself will cause him issues. A friend had a similar incident with a taxi driver but once licensing were involved the driver suddenly agreed liability as dishonesty is taken very seriously (I know it's not clear who the driver was in your case)

Send the insurers the photo.

Some scummer did this to us. Denied he was driving his car. Luckily I had taken a lot of scene photos and had captured him too.
The insurance took ages to actually tell us what the hold up was though, but once they did I sent the photos with him on - we'd only sent car damage photos and his car originally.
The insurance company visited him and then it all got sorted.

I hope your photos help!

The driver who hit me head on is ignoring my insurance company.. So is his insurance company.. My insurers are taking him to court.. He is self employed. When it is over I will be reviewing him honestly..

This
clearly it was being driven!

Insurance lawyer here! Your photos will presumably be time stamped and some now have details of where you were when it was taken. You will be able to show that, on the balance of probabilities, the vehicle was involved in the accident. Unless it’s a case of cloned plates (not too likely as it’s a taxi) then the insurer will have an obligation to meet the claim. They may well have indemnity issues (very possible that the person driving wasn’t named on the policy and it may be that the policyholder isn’t even aware that the car was taken) and they will need to bottom that out with their policyholder/the driver, and while that may delay matters, it is very unlikely that they’d be able to refuse the claim. If they were able to refuse your claim, you potentially have the right to pursue a claim via the MIB but certain heads of loss aren’t covered so this wouldn’t be the best route.

As you have a brand new car, I’m presuming that you have fully comp insurance so in the first instance get your repairs sorted by your own insurer but understandably you’ll want the fault driver’s insurance to reimburse your insurer so that you get your excess back and is not recorded as a fault claim on your policy.

I recently invested in a cheap dashcam that I fitted myself - I’d 100% suggest that you look into it for peace of mind. Feel free to direct message me if I can assist - i HATE people who try to wriggle out of a claim when it’s their fault!

If its a taxi then the company he works for will have logs of when he worked, what time and where he was picking up/dropping off at that time. I wouldnt contact the firm directly as they might erase the data but give the police and insurance the name and address of the company he works for

As PP states also report to your local licencing authourity if the drivers stating someone else was the taxi registered in his name!

Do some countries still do stamps? I have family overseas (not Europe) and I just put the passport in the electronic gate, show my face to the camera and get let in. It’s been that way for 5 or 6 years now. If you looked at my passport, you’d think I’d never been overseas!