Stolen Caravan

[Robtel]

I came across the following on another forum, the poster there asked that his request for information on their stolen van be passed on, so:
"Our Abbey Aventura 330 6 berth SGDS003SW30296799 was stolen on evening 5/6th October 2013.

We are absolutely gutted, it was our pride and joy and we had only had it a couple of months. Not insured sadly, we believed it was in a secure compound and the risk of theft was low. We were proved wrong. There is CCTV of it being stolen, but it is not clear enough to make out the registration number.

It was taken from Tuttles Lane, Wymondham, Norfolk NR18. 2003 Abbey Aventura 6 berth single axle. "

"The CCTV isn't from the site, it's from the garden centre next door. The thieves drive into the garden centre's drive and then round the back of the car park onto a farmer's field.

Then they drive across the field and cut a caravan sized hole in the 30ft bushes, build ramps across the 4ft ditch and then have access to the rear of the storage site.

The caravans are pulled through the hedge, across the ditch, through the field and out onto the garden centre's drive."

CCTV footage of caravan theft

 

[ProfJohnL]

I am sorry to read and see the video evidence. I hope the caravans are recovered in good condition. The lack of insurance is also regrettable, However depending on how the storage site is advertised or was contracted to store the caravan, the site owners may have some culpability for failing to keep their site secure, of failing to have reasonable security measures such as CCTV to deter and possibly to help identify miscreants.

 

[Surfer]

This demonstrates the necessity of insuring a caravan for peace of mind plus not being sued if your caravan created damage off road.

 

[Robtel]

This demonstrates the necessity of insuring a caravan for peace of mind

Couldn't agree more. I'd always just assumed that everyone did insure their caravan but that's the second instance on a stolen caravan with no insurance I've read about in recent months so it would seem that not everyone does buy insurance.

 

[Surfer]

This demonstrates the necessity of insuring a caravan for peace of mind

Couldn't agree more. I'd always just assumed that everyone did insure their caravan but that's the second instance on a stolen caravan with no insurance I've read about in recent months so it would seem that not everyone does buy insurance.

It makes you wonder why becasue if you are on a site and the caravan rolls away, catches fire, damages property you personally are held liable and could end up paying out for many years. I think a minimum of third party cover should be compulsory. many storage and seasonal caravan sites insist on caravans being insured while on their property.

 

[seth1]

That was well planned out and im surprised the car driving past as they were pulling out didnt stop.They need slicing up.

 

[Smurff]

My feelings go out to the owners, I'll bet they're gutted, I presume these will be sold on via a newspaper ad as all dealers would do a cris check yea, and as it couldn't be linked to an address a car park job, I expect a stupid buyer in a dark car park thinking they gotta bargain.

 

[Surfer]

My feelings go out to the owners, I'll bet they're gutted, I presume these will be sold on via a newspaper ad as all dealers would do a cris check yea, and as it couldn't be linked to an address a car park job, I expect a stupid buyer in a dark car park thinking they gotta bargain.

If they never insured it, they probably do not have it CRIS registered anyway.

 

[JonnyG]

Sorry i just dont get it! i can understand if a caravan is old and only worth say upto a grand or so, not insuring but i am assuming this does not fit into the catogory......

 

[Parksy]

My feelings go out to the owners, I'll bet they're gutted, I presume these will be sold on via a newspaper ad as all dealers would do a cris check yea, and as it couldn't be linked to an address a car park job, I expect a stupid buyer in a dark car park thinking they gotta bargain.

If the caravan was stolen by the usual suspects

it will just be used for
extra family members to sleep in, possibly a big fat wedding or some casual work coming up.
It will be probably be scrapped or burned afterwards.

 

[Dustydog]

Our Prof John has made it clear on previous posts that it is untenable the storage site owners seem to walk away from any responsibility for the theft.
I fully agree it is high time these storage site owners were challenged in Court. Afterall they take a big sum for annual rental on the basis they will safeguard your caravan. When it comes to the crunch where are they

Of course only a fool would not insure their valuable property.Equally until someone like the victim here sues the storage company in the Courts we will never know the true extent of the Company's legal liability.

 

[Surfer]

Our Prof John has made it clear on previous posts that it is untenable the storage site owners seem to walk away from any responsibility for the theft.
I fully agree it is high time these storage site owners were challenged in Court. Afterall they take a big sum for annual rental on the basis they will safeguard your caravan. When it comes to the crunch where are they

Of course only a fool would not insure their valuable property.Equally until someone like the victim here sues the storage company in the Courts we will never know the true extent of the Company's legal liability.

Storage can be taken to court as they have undertaken to safely store the unit. The fact that they may state in a contract that they accept no responsibility for theft will not wash as it will be deemed an unfair term under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Act. The storage owner will probably will lose in court if you have a half decent solicitor.

 

[JonnyG]

Our Prof John has made it clear on previous posts that it is untenable the storage site owners seem to walk away from any responsibility for the theft.
I fully agree it is high time these storage site owners were challenged in Court. Afterall they take a big sum for annual rental on the basis they will safeguard your caravan. When it comes to the crunch where are they

Of course only a fool would not insure their valuable property.Equally until someone like the victim here sues the storage company in the Courts we will never know the true extent of the Company's legal liability.

again cannot help who will benefit from it? certainly not the caravan owner who no doubt will have to pay more for the added benefit and what about their caravan insurance? in the event of the site being coverd by insurance then that insurance company would aim to get some monies back from the caravan owner insurance company if they had caravan insurance. which no doubt would bump up the caravan owners insurance anyway....nope cannot see how the caravan owner benefits....

 

[MichaelE]

Why would anyone stop? You might take notice, but only if you were a caravanner.You would think its strange yes but you wouldnt want to confront them as you would take a guess as to who they were.
These are to be used and they were stolen to order. With tracker they would locate the van in 20-30 mins and a good chance they would be recovered in a non trashed state?

 

[Raywood]

A sad tale and the moral is always insure. I am afraid over 40 years in insurance have taught me that nowhere is thief proof although some places are far better than others and hedges are certainly no barrier to thieves. I am afraid if you have not got the caravan back by now the chances of doing this are very remote. Sorry to hear of the problem though.

 

[Raywood]

Just read the new report from the C&CC. They say a lot of stolen caravans are turning up on e bay. I would check this daily and if you think it is there check with the seller where you can see it and turn up with the Police.

 

[Robtel]

Read a post on another forum (where they "talk" about "caravans"), think the poster is a mobile caravan engineer but not 100% certain on that, anyway, he was posting that police were on his premises and advised that three caravans had been stolen in the Fife area, one with a value of 14k, not insured, another with a 10k value and again uninsured. The third was described as a £300 van, no insurance status given. So seems that not insuring is much more common than I thought. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I had no insurance, would be up on guard duty!

 

[Surfer]

Read a post on another forum (where they "talk" about "caravans"), think the poster is a mobile caravan engineer but not 100% certain on that, anyway, he was posting that police were on his premises and advised that three caravans had been stolen in the Fife area, one with a value of 14k, not insured, another with a 10k value and again uninsured. The third was described as a £300 van, no insurance status given. So seems that not insuring is much more common than I thought. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I had no insurance, would be up on guard duty!

I think people don't insure because they can! All to save less than £400 per annum!

 

[SteveW77]

Read a post on another forum (where they "talk" about "caravans"), think the poster is a mobile caravan engineer but not 100% certain on that, anyway, he was posting that police were on his premises and advised that three caravans had been stolen in the Fife area, one with a value of 14k, not insured, another with a 10k value and again uninsured. The third was described as a £300 van, no insurance status given. So seems that not insuring is much more common than I thought. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I had no insurance, would be up on guard duty!

I think people don't insure because they can! All to save less than £400 per annum!

£400 may not be a lot of money to you, but it is to a lot of people.

An extra £400 could mean being able to have a holiday, or leaving the van on the drive/ storage all year.

 

[anotherDavid]

Read a post on another forum (where they "talk" about "caravans"), think the poster is a mobile caravan engineer but not 100% certain on that, anyway, he was posting that police were on his premises and advised that three caravans had been stolen in the Fife area, one with a value of 14k, not insured, another with a 10k value and again uninsured. The third was described as a £300 van, no insurance status given. So seems that not insuring is much more common than I thought. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I had no insurance, would be up on guard duty!

I think people don't insure because they can! All to save less than £400 per annum!

£400 may not be a lot of money to you, but it is to a lot of people. An extra £400 could mean being able to have a holiday, or leaving the van on the drive/ storage all year.

This is not a cheap hobby anyone who genuinely can not afford insurance probably cant afford service and possibly storage let alone a large enough towcar and might be better thinking of alternative holidays.
David

 

[Surfer]

Read a post on another forum (where they "talk" about "caravans"), think the poster is a mobile caravan engineer but not 100% certain on that, anyway, he was posting that police were on his premises and advised that three caravans had been stolen in the Fife area, one with a value of 14k, not insured, another with a 10k value and again uninsured. The third was described as a £300 van, no insurance status given. So seems that not insuring is much more common than I thought. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I had no insurance, would be up on guard duty!

I think people don't insure because they can! All to save less than £400 per annum!

£400 may not be a lot of money to you, but it is to a lot of people. An extra £400 could mean being able to have a holiday, or leaving the van on the drive/ storage all year.

This is not a cheap hobby anyone who genuinely can not afford insurance probably cant afford service and possibly storage let alone a large enough towcar and might be better thinking of alternative holidays.
David

I agree. We find insurance high, but then consider what we would feel like if we lost a caravan that cost us a big heap of money. Why are they buying a £14000 caravan if they cannot afford the £400? These are probably also the people that never service their caravans, probably over load it and probably exceed the speed limits of motorways as they don't care!

 

[SteveW77]

Read a post on another forum (where they "talk" about "caravans"), think the poster is a mobile caravan engineer but not 100% certain on that, anyway, he was posting that police were on his premises and advised that three caravans had been stolen in the Fife area, one with a value of 14k, not insured, another with a 10k value and again uninsured. The third was described as a £300 van, no insurance status given. So seems that not insuring is much more common than I thought. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I had no insurance, would be up on guard duty!

I think people don't insure because they can! All to save less than £400 per annum!

£400 may not be a lot of money to you, but it is to a lot of people. An extra £400 could mean being able to have a holiday, or leaving the van on the drive/ storage all year.

This is not a cheap hobby anyone who genuinely can not afford insurance probably cant afford service and possibly storage let alone a large enough towcar and might be better thinking of alternative holidays.
David

I agree. We find insurance high, but then consider what we would feel like if we lost a caravan that cost us a big heap of money. Why are they buying a £14000 caravan if they cannot afford the £400? These are probably also the people that never service their caravans, probably over load it and probably exceed the speed limits of motorways as they don't care!

My god, you have already got these poor people hung drawn and quartered. Until insurance and maintainance becomes a legal requirement, people can choose how they spend their money. Nobody as far as I know has asked for any kind financial assistance from members of this forum, so why do you condemn these people as being likely to be criminals ( speeding ) and totally irresponsible as far maintenancence and overloading is concerned as they "don't care"

 

[Parksy]

£400 may not be a lot of money to you, but it is to a lot of people.

An extra £400 could mean being able to have a holiday, or leaving the van on the drive/ storage all year.

£400 is a substantial sum, but for the benefit of anyone reading this who doesn't already know, many caravan insurance companies allow customers to spread the cost of caravan insurance over 10 or 12 months although an extra cost is added to the price of the premium.
Whichever way we look at it caravanning isn't cheap but it's very expensive for an uninsured owner who'se tourer is stolen.

 

[WoodlandsCamper]

Caravan insurance is like everything else with the word 'caravan' in it - a massive rip-off on Joe Public. I have been looking at the cost of fully comp insurance for a new car costing over £20,000 and it's between £150 and £200. The insurance cost on my van valued about £10,000 is £400, 4 to 5x the equivalent car cost. The time spent at risk on the road for the van is about 10% of the car time, with the rest of the time spent in secure storage (but how secure is secure storage??). You pays your money and takes your choice.

 

[JonnyG]

Read a post on another forum (where they "talk" about "caravans"), think the poster is a mobile caravan engineer but not 100% certain on that, anyway, he was posting that police were on his premises and advised that three caravans had been stolen in the Fife area, one with a value of 14k, not insured, another with a 10k value and again uninsured. The third was described as a £300 van, no insurance status given. So seems that not insuring is much more common than I thought. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I had no insurance, would be up on guard duty!

I think people don't insure because they can! All to save less than £400 per annum!

£400 may not be a lot of money to you, but it is to a lot of people. An extra £400 could mean being able to have a holiday, or leaving the van on the drive/ storage all year.

This is not a cheap hobby anyone who genuinely can not afford insurance probably cant afford service and possibly storage let alone a large enough towcar and might be better thinking of alternative holidays.
David

I agree. We find insurance high, but then consider what we would feel like if we lost a caravan that cost us a big heap of money. Why are they buying a £14000 caravan if they cannot afford the £400? These are probably also the people that never service their caravans, probably over load it and probably exceed the speed limits of motorways as they don't care!

My god, you have already got these poor people hung drawn and quartered. Until insurance and maintainance becomes a legal requirement, people can choose how they spend their money. Nobody as far as I know has asked for any kind financial assistance from members of this forum, so why do you condemn these people as being likely to be criminals ( speeding ) and totally irresponsible as far maintenancence and overloading is concerned as they "don't care"

hmmm trying to find where anyone condemns anyone ? i suppose and this is my own personal opinion mind, "poor"! NOT.. lacking common sense yes.... i'd bet if they ever did buy another caravan of value, they would insure it next time... see common sense!!!!