Purchased stolen car without known it was

[canitez50]

I am wondering if there are any wise individuals among you who could offer some comforting words or advice for my current situation?
Unfortunately, I'm going through quite a distressing process. Not only am I dealing with health issues, but I also bought a car recently, only to later find out it was a stolen vehicle with ID tampered and it was seized by the police at my doorstep.
The difficulties I've faced during this process have been extremely draining. The police confiscated the car just a week after I bought it and took it away from my doorstep. It wouldn't be wrong to say that every door I thought I could seek help from has been shut in my face.
The insurance company cancelled the policy and even charged me a cancellation fee without sympathy. Whereas, at least they could waive the administration charges by considering the difficult situation I am in. Furthermore, DVLA sent me a letter stating that someone else was trying to transfer the car and asked if I was aware of it. It seems the vehicle is now returned back to either the insurance company or rightful owner, and they are trying to take keepership over. Although I replied with a letter saying I am not giving any consent for transferring keepership, if they still go ahead, it will be without me confirming this transaction.
In the last couple of weeks, I've talked to numerous law firms. I even counted it to be 37 of them, and only two said they might be able to help. Once they hear I paid in cash, they do not seem interested in my case. Anyway, two of them firms claimed they might be helping me, it seemed they are more concerned about the cost of hourly rate of £250 and how they would get paid than dealing with my problem or helping me to recover my loss.
As I am a member of a union, one of the union-affiliated law firms listened to my issue but said they couldn't help because of the nature of the incident that they do not deal with. That made me feel guilty during this process and hopeless because I can't get any help. I am feeling I am the only person who has done the wrong within the whole matter.
At the start I considered contacting the person who sold me the car. I wanted to write a letter or a message to say the car he sold me is a stolen one, and the police took it, and I want my money refunded. But the union lawyer mentioned it could be risky; it is because before The Police locates him, he may just vanish, and The Police may not find him at all. The person who sold me the car is still selling other items online on social media. I reported it to Action Fraud, but there hasn't been any progress yet. Anyway, what action fraud team is doing to look into criminal acts, whereas my argument is a civil matter, and I do not know why I should not at least try to ask this person to give my money back.
Also, despite it sounded promising, it would not have been anymore than shot in the dark that the union-arranged solicitor suggested I could contact the chief constable of where the region the vehicle was seized and explain that I bought the car in good faith and why it should be the only person who loses everything that the car should be returned to me.
As you can understand from all these happenings, I am just extremely confused. I don't know if I'll get any results, but at least I'll try to the end about this matter and not let this person get away without any consequences. I really have to do something for psychological recovery from these emotional damages if I even cannot recover financial losses.

Have you got the address of the guy you bought from? Send a letter before action and take them to small claims. Use a template letter, don’t write it yourself because your OP is twice as long as it needs to be.

I'm really sorry you are going through this.

You should consent to transferring keepership to the rightful owner of the car. Trying to block this isn't helping you. It is their car. It has never been yours. Making life difficult for the rightful owner does not change anything.

You won't get the car returned to you. The person who sold it to you did not own it, so the sale was not valid. You have no claim on the car. I am very surprised at the "advice" given by the union-arranged solicitor. If the police gave you the car back, they would be facilitating a crime and, instead of you losing out, the rightful owner would lose out.

You can take legal action against the person who sold the car to you to recover the money you paid. This is the only way you are going to get anything out of this mess. However, your post suggests that the police don't know where he is. If that is the case, attempting to start legal action will alert him to the fact the police are onto him and he may just vanish, which will mean he won't get a criminal conviction and you won't get your money back. Keep talking to the police. Once they have located him you can start legal action against him to get your money back.

If you and the police already know where he is, you can start legal action. If you paid less than £10,000 this would be a small claim, so you wouldn't need a lawyer. However, you need to consider the risk that he will disappear. You also need to be sure that he has enough assets to pay you back, otherwise you will be throwing away even more money.

Thank you for your response. Although there are some aspects that I don't particularly like, you are entirely correct in reality. The point I find difficult to understand is that despite being in a victimized position, someone continuously takes things from me without explaining anything. For example, they took away the car without providing anything except a small form, and without any explanation.

They are trying to transfer the ownership of the car away from me. It is extremely disturbing that nobody provides an explanation about this.

I had my cover for two days when the car was taken away, two weeks later The insurance company is canceling my policy without calling me to explain what is happening. Moreover, charging me for 2 weeks and charging me a fee for canceling the policy.

yes, I couldn't understand the advice given by the union lawyer,either. I think they want me to try my luck.

I have no idea whether the police know where the seller is or not. I provided them with the information I have. Even now, the seller is selling things, and when I ask questions about items sold through other people's accounts, I receive answers. So, the seller is still actively engaging in sales. I assume the police will think that much to locate him.

The reason I haven't contacted the seller is exactly as you said. I want the police to obtain the necessary information and then for me to initiate a compensation lawsuit against the seller. But to be honest, I don't have enough faith that the police will do what is necessary. I also don't think they will provide me with any information. Perhaps if I file a lawsuit and the court requests it, they will provide the necessary information.

Even if I can't get my money back from the seller, I should know that there will be consequences for the damage he caused me. Ultimately, if the court approves my damages, they will take precautionary measures against the seller. Unfortunately, the amount I paid is more than £10k, and a significant portion of this money is what my children have saved for years. This saddens me the most.

As I understand it you have no rights or claim over this car at all, it was never yours. The victim in this is you, you have been stolen from, you have had your money stolen, but were never owned the car

There are websites to check the background of cars. It’s states if they’ve been stolen or damaged previously.

It’s cheap to protect yourself.

No good to you now.

Buyer beware.

I can be of no help but out of interest, was the car cheap for the year/model?

Surely the original owner would have been compensated by their insurance? By requesting the car back as well they would be commiting fraud if they have accepted the money from their insurance company.

this is irrelevant, and not the OPs business.

The situation is that if you buy stolen property, it never belongs to you, you have no claim over it and you have lost your money. Whether the car now belongs to its original owner or the insurance company has nothing to do with the fact that it does not, and never did belong to the OP

I don't think the courts are going to request information from the police so the case can go ahead. It's you bringing the case, so it's you who'd have to provide any necessary information. You can't start a court case without a name and address for the court to send the summons to for the hearing.

I'm sorry this has happened to you. I don't think you're going to get anywhere TBH.

The car being stolen from its owner is a separate issue to you being defrauded. Have you reported the crime you are a victim of, so you have a crime reference number?

I wouldn't be too cross at the insurance company. You have to pay the two weeks insurance because you had use of the car/insurance for those two weeks. They've incurred admin costs in setting it up and cancelling it and they're a business, they're not going to waive their fees and take a financial hit themselves just because you've been victim of a crime. No more than eg your local fast food chain is going to give you a free takeaway. Or any other company give you anything out of pity. That's not how businesses work.

If the insurance has charged you a cancellation fee, that implies they're treating the situation as one of you cancelling the insurance, I'd say. You should check that though. If I'm right then this is good, because if they cancel it you get some kind of "black mark" against your name. I think that's because they only cancel it for bad reasons like fraud etc.

It's one of the questions when you take out insurance, whether you've ever had a policy cancelled by the insurer or been refused insurance. If the insurance are treating it as if you've cancelled this policy, you can answer "No" to that question. I imagine anyone who has to answer "Yes" to that question either gets refused insurance or quoted a sky-high premium.

They took the car because it is not yours

What checks did you do before you handed over money?

Not necessarily. The car might have been found before the claim was settled. If its been returned to them it'll be on the instruction of the insurance company. Otherwise it'll be the property of the insurance company.

The original owner isn't commiting any kind of fraud

For anyone else buying a car privately, It's no use for the OP now but you can check if a car is stolen online in literally seconds

They are trying to transfer the ownership of the car away from me. It is extremely disturbing that nobody provides an explanation about this.

It is not your car. You do not own it. You have never owned it. Because it was stolen, the person who sold it to you could not give you ownership of the car as they didn't own it. It has always belonged to the person from whom it was stolen.

I had my cover for two days when the car was taken away, two weeks later The insurance company is canceling my policy without calling me to explain what is happening. Moreover, charging me for 2 weeks and charging me a fee for canceling the policy.

They are cancelling it because you don't own the car and you are clearly never going to drive it again. I know this is hard, but they did insure you for the two weeks you were driving the car, so they are entitled to charge for that. They are also entitled to charge a cancellation fee to cover their costs.

Perhaps if I file a lawsuit and the court requests it, they will provide the necessary information.

No, it doesn't work like that. You need to have the seller's name and address to start legal action against them. The court won't find them for you.

As this claim is over £10k, you would be able to recover your legal costs from the seller if you take action against them and win. I suspect the reason you are struggling to find a lawyer to take this on is that you paid cash. This makes it hard to prove what happened. It also means the courts may think that you knew perfectly well that you were buying a stolen car (or that it might be stolen), particularly if you paid substantially less than you would normally expect for a car of that make, model, age and mileage.

Surely the original owner would have been compensated by their insurance? By requesting the car back as well they would be commiting fraud

If the claim was settled, the original owner has the option to buy back the car for what the claim paid out.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/somethings-gone-wrong-with-a-purchase/if-you-think-youve-bought-stolen-goods/

Ot states you have a league right to a refund - it may take a long time but police do seize the proceeds of crime - if there is any.

I'm sorry this has happened to you and I haven't read all of your posts but, as a lawyer, can I just say, if several firms have refused to touch this case ( in reality, you haven't got one), please don't chuck good money after bad by hiring one who says they can help, but wants a retainer. They are unscrupulous as in reality, they can't help you in this matter.