Chinese investor house buying scam

[Mr Kobayashi]

But plod would not act claiming no crime had been committed.

How would they know unless they investigated?

On the facts I would say that there has certainly been a fraudulent misrepresentation. By a fraudster posing as the owner as claimed or the legitimate owner sold the property and has made fraudulent misrepresentations that he wasn't involved in a legitimate sale- in the hope that the sale would be unwound or compensation he has no entitlement to is paid out.

"This is a civil matter" doesn't necessarily mean that no crime has taken place, it just means that the police have no intention of investigating and this may be because of a misunderstanding.

 

[Fiftyyearsandcounting]

You’d be surprised. I owned a car that was sold by a garage to whom it had been entrusted to do some work. Dibble said no crime had been committed. My solicitor said one had. Dibble refused to accept that and it became a costly civil matter for me to get compensated, but never back what rightfully belonged to me.

The law "Is a ass". My son's car broke down late at night and has to be left until we could arrange recovery in the morning. Returned to the spot next day but the car had gone. A local garage claimed they had instructions from the local council to recover the vehicle (between 23:00 & 0630?) The council said that was untrue, the police confirmed they hadn't ordered it. The police would not even speak to the garage (who wanted £200 recovery fee), they said because the car was towed away and not driven it was not theft. I told the desk sergeant I was about to tow away his car, he said he'd arrest me!

 

[Mr Kobayashi]

You’d be surprised. I owned a car that was sold by a garage to whom it had been entrusted to do some work. Dibble said no crime had been committed. My solicitor said one had. Dibble refused to accept that and it became a costly civil matter for me to get compensated, but never back what rightfully belonged to me.

You would have benefitted from a lower burden of proof in a civil matter.

I'm not surprised police wouldn't get involved in your kind of dispute, it would have been easy for the garage to mock up an invoice and claim a debt was owed.

Although something probably overlooked by the police, is that if there was a crime committed, then there is a good chance that it's a professional gang regularly carrying out the same type of offence.

 

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

What I want to know is…
How did they get the keys?

Probably they are regulars on BlueMoon and took the general advice on here - smash the back doors in.....

 

[metalblue]

You would have benefitted from a lower burden of proof in a civil matter.

I'm not surprised police wouldn't get involved in your kind of dispute, it would have been easy for the garage to mock up an invoice and claim a debt was owed.

Although something probably overlooked by the police, is that if there was a crime committed, then there is a good chance that it's a professional gang regularly carrying out the same type of offence.

The problem was that the garage was a lose partnership (I think was the term) and effectively I’d be going after the owners individually - I’d chew up a shit tonne of legal fees with no guarantees of recovery.

 

[metalblue]

The law "Is a ass". My son's car broke down late at night and has to be left until we could arrange recovery in the morning. Returned to the spot next day but the car had gone. A local garage claimed they had instructions from the local council to recover the vehicle (between 23:00 & 0630?) The council said that was untrue, the police confirmed they hadn't ordered it. The police would not even speak to the garage (who wanted £200 recovery fee), they said because the car was towed away and not driven it was not theft. I told the desk sergeant I was about to tow away his car, he said he'd arrest me!

It sometime beggars belief mate - you’d think any sane person would say “yeah that’s theft” but I guess the gangs know what they can get away with that’s isn’t “criminal” in eyes of law but is in the eyes of a normal person.

 

[Mr Kobayashi]

The problem was that the garage was a lose partnership (I think was the term) and effectively I’d be going after the owners individually - I’d chew up a shit tonne of legal fees with no guarantees of recovery.

Unincorporated partnership? Or any partnership that isn't an LLP.

That’s if they bothered to contest it, good chance it would have ended with a default judgment. Firms that can't be arsed to incorporate their business relationship are less likely to pay lawyers for disputes.

If they owned the equipment at the garage you could paid to have a Sheriff serve a high court writ on the premises for removal of property.

 

[Gogootz]

You can set up an alert on any property with the land registry to find out if any action is being taken against it (new mortgages etc)

Can set up up to ten properties, so you can get a heads up if someone's trying to sell your gaffe from under you or a relative's from under them!

Property Alert

Sign up to HM Land Registry's free Property Alert service to help protect your property from fraud.

www.gov.uk

 

[Octavian]

The law "Is a ass". My son's car broke down late at night and has to be left until we could arrange recovery in the morning. Returned to the spot next day but the car had gone. A local garage claimed they had instructions from the local council to recover the vehicle (between 23:00 & 0630?) The council said that was untrue, the police confirmed they hadn't ordered it. The police would not even speak to the garage (who wanted £200 recovery fee), they said because the car was towed away and not driven it was not theft. I told the desk sergeant I was about to tow away his car, he said he'd arrest me!

Nothing surprises me about plod these days.

My neighbour who’s very old, talking 85 maybe, was getting her house broken into by 3 yobs the other week. I’ve gone out and told them to F off and they’ve threatened me and said they’re coming back to attack our house, making all sorts of threats. Our entire street is retired people.

I called the police when the scum were literally still on our street, even though they were leaving, and 999 said and I quote “let us know if they come back”.

I asked if they intended to get out and try and catch them as they were still at the top of the road and had just tried to commit a burglary and threatened us with violence… plod weren’t interested.

Back in the day they actually got off their arses.

 

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

The "problem" is the duped buyer bought in good faith which means the property now legally belongs to him / her