[Paul the 6th]

Hi guys, this is turning into a saga so I'll keep it as short as possible.

Early december my missus' car was parked up while she was at work.

Guy in a car transporter scraped the car and damaged the nearside of body shell behind the door (3 door), ripped the bumper to bits and smashed the light cluster.

Witnesses saw him get out, inspect and then leave (he later claimed that he left a note but the rain and wind must have blown it away).

Missus obtained a quote from a bodyshop by sending pictures via email, they quoted about £300-£400 to fix. She then got 2 subsequent quotes by taking the car into 2 other bodyshops, they both advised circa £1500 to £2000 due to the extent of the damage.

The car transporter guy said he wasn't happy that the two latter quotes were so high and offered to have his own bodyshop fix the car. We pointed out a potential conflict of interest if the car wasn't repaired to a suitable standard in his own bodyshop, he then said we'd hear from his insurance company. That was in mid-february.

Despite chasing the guy we've heard nothing from him till last week when he finally gave us his vehicle reg, policy number etc. We've contacted his insurance company N.I.G. who claim to have no record of his policy. He answered this by saying "oh contact my broker then they'll contact NIG"... The broker have said there's no guarantee we'll hear from N.I.G.

Missus has contacted her own insurance who've said they can initiate the claim but her No Claims Bonus might not be protected if she's the one to initiate the whole thing, so they then advised her to contact this guys insurance company.


Any ideas on what we do next? Thanks in advance

p.s. the guy is Derek Wilson who runs a vehicle recovery company in Teesside if anyone on here has had any dealings with him?