UK motor insurance news

Man with cheap car insurance policy has car seized and crushed for being uninsured

A man from Farnworth has had his car seized by police then crushed because they wrongly thought he was driving without motor insurance.

Steven Booth, 36, was stopped by Greater Manchester Police on his way to work in Bolton and informed that, according to their database, he was driving without car insurance. Although he stated that he was covered by cheap car insurance with the AA, they did not believe him.

He said: "The police's attitude towards me was unbelievable. They said I might have cancelled my payments, in which case they would charge me with deception."

His Peugeot was then towed away and Mr Booth was told he had to pay a £105 to cover the recovery charges. However, he could not afford to pay the fee, which rose by £12 for every day it was in storage.

After 14 days, Mr Booth still had not paid the charges and his car was crushed.

However, what the police were not aware of was that Mr Booth was indeed fully insured. He had renewed his cheap car insurance policy with the AA on January 4th 2007 and was in the process of paying by monthly instalments. His wife even took the motor insurance certificate to the police station as proof of his insured status, but was just given a form and told to pay the £105.

A spokesman for the AA said: "As far as we can tell, [Mr Booth] is not in the wrong and he and his family have lost out.

"We think the police are behaving in cavalier fashion."

A spokesman for Bolton Police commented: "An incident where a car was seized in Bolton on January 8, 2007, has been bought to the attention of officers.

"The circumstances surrounding this seizure will now be fully investigated to establish whether or not the seizure was lawfully made.

"In 2006, 41,000 vehicles were seized by GMP officers in relation to insurance and licensing offences. Subsequent investigations showed only two of these vehicles were unlawfully seized."

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