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14 Jan 2011 12:00 AM by julie08 Star rating. 6 posts Send private message

 

I am trying to get some legal advice on a recent situation that happened to my son. I cannot afford to go to a solicitor, as we would be unable to pay the cost. Its a bit of a saga but here is what happened.
My son had a 50cc moped which we bought second hand from a friend less than a year ago. We have very little money and really struggle to make ends meet I work full time and my son has summer work as a scuba diving instructor, the moped enables him to work whenever he can as we live in the campo 30k from the Puerto de Mazarron where we both work.
Recently my car broke down and unfortunately my sons bike broke down on the same day .This was a real trauma for us as´ now we had no transport to enable us to work.
I arranged for my car to be taken to a local garage in Mazarron and then had to rely on the kindness of friends who allowed me to stay with them in the Port so as I could work. My son’s bike was left legally parked in El Pareton waiting for me to make the arrangements to return it home.
 
My car was in the garage for 10days, as soon as I got the car I drove to El Pareton to discover my son’s bike was missing I assumed stolen. So on Monday morning my son and I went to El Pareton and asked the man who owns the garage if he knew where the bike was as it was parked near to his garage. He gave my son a sticker from the local police saying it had been towed away 
We went to Totana Local Police who confirmed it had been towed away, when we asked why he said because they thought it was abandoned. We pointed out that the bike was completely legal the paperwork was in my son’s name it was insured with a current ITV so he was perfectly within his rights to park the bike on a public road. The policeman agreed but still insisted that they thought the bike was abandoned. So we suggested that they could have checked on the computer records which would have shown the bike to be completely legal and not reported stolen, again he agreed but said yes but we thought it was abandoned. Getting nowhere we asked if we could have the bike back to which he replied oh yes but we need you to pay €180 first. My goodness we were astounded what for???? Well for the cost of the grua and storage fees. Once again we insisted that the bike was legal and legally parked and we shouldn’t have to pay anything, to which he replied well if you’re not happy you can take us to court.
So knowing we could not afford to that either as nothing legal is free here, nor could we afford to pay the €180, the other option was to sign to say we didn’t want the bike anymore which my son had no choice but to do. We then asked if we could collect personal items from the bike, the policeman agreed and told us where to go. Well this in itself was a journey but when we eventually found the lock up and only because 2 policeman were outside. My son went in with the police and when he came out he said well I am glad we didn’t pay €180 because the bike was absolutely trashed it had clearly been dragged on to the grua smashing all the faring the steering was broken because my son had left the steering lock on and the seat lock had been forced open. The bike was going to cost 100´s of Euros to put back on the road.  
So where does this leave us, well with no transport for my son to get to work and we have lost the cost of the bike because the insurance won’t pay because the police took the bike. As I mentioned we have little money and we have to go without to ensure that our vehicles are roadworthy and legal for our own safety and because it’s the law. I recently had to spend quite a bit on the bike to get the ITV certificate again when we can ill afford it. 
However, we as do many others, pay for repairs and necessary things on our vehicles so that the above things should never happen. The bike was legal and that surely gives us the right to park the bike on the road for as long as we want. Ok I understand if a strange vehicle is outside your house for 4 or 5days you may well call the police as the vehicle could be stolen or abandoned. But the police can check to see if these things have happened that’s why they have all our details on the computer. When they discover that the vehicle is completely legal what right do they have to remove it and then charge us for the privilege? 
So now my son cannot work unless I take him with me at 8am he doesn’t start work until 10pm so he has 2 hours to kill in the morning then I finish at 5pm and he finishes at 8pm so I have 3hours to wait for him which means we are both out at work for over 13hrs a day as its half an hour drive home afterwards.
If anyone can give any advice it would be very much appreciated
Julie
 
 




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14 Jan 2011 4:52 PM by buzylizzie Star rating in Gibraltar, Manilva a.... 192 posts Send private message

buzylizzie´s avatar

This is a terrible situation to be in, Julie, but unfortunately I don't think there is much you can do about it, except write it off as a bad experience, and somethig to learn by!

The police would probably say that the damage was caused prior to them taking the bike - in fact, they would probably use the excuse that because the bike was damaged they thought it had been abandoned! Unless you could prove otherwise you'd be scuppered.

Sorry it's not good news

I had an even worse experience than this many years ago when my very expensive bike was stolen from outside a hotel on Costa del Sol. I was actually on the balcony of a hotel at the time and heard the bike starting up - I jumped up and shouted for the thief to get off my bike and the man turned and shouted "no - it's a my bike" before riding it away! I went to the police who were less than helpful and after spending many hours in the police station they finally took my report. I then discovered that my insurance didn't cover me for theft in Spain, only third party. I had effectively lost £15k (3 million pesetas in the day!). Despite some bystanders/tourists actually vidoe-taping the theft and providing me with the evidence of the thief there was no arrest ever made. Even after reporting it to the police, when I HPi'd the bike on my return home, it was not even registered stolen on the database!

Then guess who ended up riding my bike, albeit with a new registration number???? A very high ranking police officer!!!! Unbelievable, but true. I don't suppose all police are as bad as each other, but back in the day I certainly thought they were!


 



This message was last edited by buzylizzie on 14/01/2011.



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14 Jan 2011 6:10 PM by guslopez Star rating in Lorca, Murcia.. 744 posts Send private message

There are legal aid solicitors for people on low or no income in Spain but for the life of me I can't remember what they are called. “asistencia jurídica gratuita”)

 I've found some info for you here.  http://ec.europa.eu/civiljustice/legal_aid/legal_aid_spa_en.htm  Hope this helps.



_______________________

Todos somos Lorca.




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15 Jan 2011 8:42 AM by mariadecastro Star rating in Algeciras (Cadiz). 9419 posts Send private message

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