This car was owned from new in 1972
by my “aunt” Eileen (first cousin once removed actually). She lived in
Birkenhead and only drove it short distances and only to places she had been before! Eileen seems to have stopped using
it in 1993 and it remained in a garage in one of three blocks of garages, covered in old
coats. She died in February 1999. We visited the house but could not
see the car as the garage was locked and no sign of a key.
A local solicitor was appointed to act on our behalf. The following (abridged)
“conversations” took place by telephone, fax, and letter. Solicitor: I have a client who
knows about cars and will look at it for £25. Me: OK Solicitor: He has looked at the
car. It is undriveable and worthless. He can get it scrapped free of charge. I trust you
will agree to that? Me: No. Eileen’s friends said
it was in quite good order. Solicitor: Sorry. Too late. It has
been scrapped. Me: I want a copy of your
expert’s report. (Two lines on a bit of paper
arrived. Suspicious and not having the log book I wrote to the DVLA with this story. They
assured me no-one had re-registered it and, unasked, sent me a replacement log book.) Solicitor (about two weeks later):
It seems the scrap dealer has not collected the car yet, so you can look at it if you
want. Me: OK. I need a key. How did your
man get into the locked garage? Solicitor: I wondered that! Solicitor (shortly afterwards): Er,
it seems my man examined the wrong car. So the solicitor had authorised the
scrapping of someone else’s car! The solicitor’s
“expert” had not followed the directions given and had gone to a garage in the
same position in the adjacent rank. There he had found an Imp of the same model, year and
colour! In his "report" he had filled in the registration number afterwards. It
also seems there was a third similar Imp in one of the other garages! At this point I said I would deal
with the matter myself. A local garage that had serviced the car previously gave it an MOT
after attention to the brakes and a new pair of windscreen wiper blades! |
