http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article1654994.ece
From The Sunday Times
April 15, 2007
Car theft victims pay police £105 to investigate
Jon Ungoed-Thomas
MOTORISTS whose cars are stolen are being told they must pay the police
at least £105 if they want them to recover their vehicle when it is
found and check it for forensic clues.
The scheme — being implemented by forces across the country — has been
attacked by angry motorists.
Only car owners who agree to pay the fee, which in theory is to cover
storage, are assured their cars will be “forensicated” — which means
dusted down for fingerprints or swabbed for DNA.
A police letter approved by the Home Office warns motorists who recover
their own vehicles that the cars will not be checked for clues. It
states: “[The police force will accept] no further responsibility and
will be unable to take further action to identify the person who took
it.”
Opposition MPs this weekend attacked the charges, which often cannot be
recovered under car insurance policies, for penalising the victims of
car crime.
David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said: “Taxpayers already pay
twice for policing, through central taxation and council tax.
“It’s ludicrous to charge them a third time for the police to do their
normal job when their cars have been stolen through no fault of their
own.”
While victims of car theft will automatically be charged if they want
the vehicle taken to a “forensic car pound” for tests, there are no
similar fees for any other police services. Victims of burglary are not
offered any optional fees to guarantee forensic tests when they report a
break-in.
“This is an absolute scam,” said Don Astwood, 54, who is disabled and
was levied with the £105 charge and a storage fee of about £100 after
his car was stolen outside his home in Rochdale, Greater Manchester. “My
car was found legally parked a few miles away where I could have picked
it up, but they charged me to take it another 10 miles further away
where they checked it for fingerprints.”
Chris Haslam, a travel writer from north London, said he was
“flabbergasted” when he reported his Land Rover stolen last week and was
told of the “new service”. The alternative was that he would be given
the car’s location if it was found and he could “retrieve it himself”.
“That’s free, sir,” the operator told him. The number of cars stolen
each year in England and Wales has more than halved in the past 10 years
as manufacturers develop more sophisticated security systems. In 2005-06
203,600 cars were stolen, half of which were recovered.
--
Atheist n A person to be pitied in that he is
unable to believe things for which there is
no evidence, and who has thus deprived himself of
a convenient means of feeling superior to others.
—Chaz Bufe, The American Heretic’s Dictionary
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