Shocked, you get out and look, but can see no damage to your car or theirs. But you are understandably intimidated as it is a two-on-one situation, and the people involved are quite obviously lacking in honesty and integrity being, as they are, out for a compo claim.
So. Two skangers are shouting the odds, and demanding your insurance details, even though you have not touched them. So rather than give your name and address, you make them up to keep the skangers at bay. Then you leave the scene, shaken, and resolve to report the incident at the Garda station the following morning.
Morning comes, and in you go. You engage the attention of the disinterested copper behind the desk. However, he does not seem to think your case is too important and does not even take down your details. A week or two later, you get a letter from the skangers’ solicitor (the coppers gave them your address) suing you for “injury, emotional distress and trauma”. Loss of earnings are not being sought… draw your own conclusions on that one.
You get in touch with your insurance company and an assessor examines your car and the compo skangers’, before concluding that you are not responsible for any of the numerous bumps and scrapes on their car. You go back to the cop shop to give a statement to one of Templemore’s best. Sadly, she doesn’t seem to be one of the more intelligent ones (it’s all relative), but you point out that the insurance accessor maintains you did not damage their car, and has advised the insurance company not to pay out. This backs up your contention that you never touched the skangers’ car.
So that’s that, you think. Until 10 months later plod knocks at your door to give you a summons for fleeing the scene of an accident. “But there WAS NO ACCIDENT”, you say again. You phone up the insurance company once more, only to discover that the ban Garda (not ban in the English sense, unfortunately, but Gaelic for female I think) has not even bothered her fat arse to contact the insurance company to see their accident report. If she had, she would have seen there was no accident scene to "flee".
The above happened to a friend of mine recently. Now she has to go to the trouble and expense of hiring a solicitor to point out the obvious in a court of law.
Any chance of the coppers pursuing the skangers for making a false-claim?
Not a chance. Too pig-headed you see.
Back to Gombeen Nation main page
11 comments:
nice pic gm iwonder if that piggie copper wears perfume or aftershave
GM - I've just sent you a link to an Aussie company currently relocating to Ireland. Based originally in Aus then on to Netherlands and now it's your turn to not levy any tax off them. Have a look at their track record - especially in relation to asbestos related illness claims. Bon appetit
PonyBoy
Hi GM,
Of course your friend was legally obliged to give her name and address to the skangers, even if nothing took place. As long as one party contends that an accident has taken place, there has to be an exchange of details. That said, I understand why she wouldn't want to give her details to freeloading scum
I attach a you tube link with a dedication (courtesy of the 4 Skins) especially for the girl in blue in Blanchardstown!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYZU2am6WLk
V hard to say, Mr BH... but I wouldn't like to find out!
Thanks PB, got something on that.
Very catchy little ditty, Ella. Can't get it out of my head. But surely not all? Is that not something of a generalisation? I'd say about 99.9%
Hi GM,
Least anybody think I’m a racist skinhead by mentioning the 4Skins. I’m not, and I don’t believe the band were either, certainly pre-1983. However I note that in 1983 guitarist, Paul Swain joined the 4Skins and then went on to play with Screwdriver. Not good. Vile in fact. It really does beggar belief , when you think that Hoxton Tom McCourt (leading light in the 4 Skins) was a mod and it to 60s, ska and reggae.
I just happened to remember the song from years ago, it’s a title that once you hear, you will always remember. Just thought I’d clear that up.
Amazing. From "All Coppers are Bastards" to advocating a police/military dictatorship with neo-nazi band Skrewdriver... which is what fascism is.
Mind you, it was only the guitarist... all he had to do was play the one bar chord, so how influential was he in the 4 Skins?
Think the Dead Kennedys summed it up well in "Nazi Punks Fuck Off". It applies to Nazi Skins too, I think.
"You still think swastikas look cool
The real nazis run your schools
They're coaches, businessmen and cops
In a real fourth reich you'll be the first to go"
"The above happened to a friend of mine recently. Now she has to go to the trouble and expense of hiring a solicitor to point out the obvious in a court of law."
A claim for the sum involved (plus time off work, travel, childcare if applicable etc etc) in the small claims court against the officer in question on the grounds of negligence might be worth pursuing. Especially if some reporters can be persuadded to come along.
And eh why didn't your friend call the 'coppers' to the scene?? That'd probably be too logical to do! The 'coppers' can't deal with an accident that some at the station says happened. They have to be called to the scene to witness area, damage etc.
If you are a woman on your own, confronted with two shouting skangers in Blanchardstown, who claim you crashed into them when you didn't, maybe then you can come back and tell me how you acted"logically" and calmly in such a situation?
No such excuses for the copper in the station, to whom she reported the details in full within twenty-four hours. They are LEGALLY obliged to record all complaints/reports of incidents. They didn't. She also reported it to the insurance company who, luckily for her, had a transcript of her report.
No such excuses for the other "prosectuing" copper who saw my friend as an easy conviction, and instead of checking with the copper who didn't record the incident on paper - but surely would have been able to verify it verbally - decided not to, to "do" her. The crux of the issue is that the coppers did not record her reporting the incident, though they subsequently acknowledged an incident occured.
Maybe if a similar scam is perpetrated on you or someone you know, you might be a bit more circumspect?
Sorry... had to remove that last one for potential libel reasons! I'm afraid - much as I might want to - I can't publish the names of individual gardai who readers think bear a resemblance to the pic above.
:-(
Post a Comment