Police literally stolen/taken my family's car from the street?
 

Hi there,

This happend last week to my brother and I want some sound advice and suggestions from police and public here on how to solve this.


My brother whose N license was suspended had his gf drive my dad's car to the mall, the gf has N license, and my dad is currently out of the country.

Inside the mall, the gf was afraid to park so my brother parked the car inside the mall. They then came back after a while and the gf drove the car away. The police then pulled the car over and examed both my brother's and the gf's license. They then decided the gf could not drive the car because she is not a family member (and thus ICBC doesnt cover her insurance) and more importantly, they saw my brother parking inside the mall whose license was suspended. However when they pulled over the car its the gf that is driving.

They then towed the car away and gave it a 60 days suspension. We now have to pay for the storage which is charged by the day and the towing..We been going all over ICBC and the police station and rusty's trying to get the car back and theres no way out.

The question is, can the police tow the car away base on that? shouldnt they just issue a warning and have something else come and drive the car away?

Im absolutely furious as its my dad's work car and hes out of the country on a trip and when he comes back it will be big problem for the family.

any help is appreciated.

lemme tell you a story similar to your situation. my friend did the same thing. His license was suspended but still he chose to operate a motor vehicle on public road. The cops pulled him over. Since it was his second offense, they put him in jail for 7 days.

well, thing is,

it wasnt my brother that was driving when the car was pulled over. it was the gf
secondly the gf has a license and insurance.

You mentioned that the cops saw your brother driving, when he's not supposed to, and it looks like that's enough reason to do what they did. They probably could've been nice about it, but it is Richmond.

Your problem/question/solution is right there.

It's worst to drive without insurance then without your license. Something tells me you're going to have a very angry dad.

Yea in this case I don't think your bros gf being the one driving when pulled over really has anything to do with it since they witnessed your brother driving the car previous to that. The fact that your bros gf "doesn't" have the right to drive the car seems like no issue to me. I've been questioned by cops before while operating my gf's moms car and it was never an issue when I told them I got permission to drive it.

If what you say is true and that your brother was only parking the car then I don't really think that is the problem. Plus from your story, you said that they went into the mall and the GF drove the car out. The police usually have better things to do than to wait for a couple finish shopping at the mall (IMO).

I do know that the GF cannot operate the vehicle if her name is not on the insurance and since your bro's license is suspended they were out of luck.

Usually the police will tow the car if the car was pulled over at a NO STOP part of the road and since no one can operate the vehicle at the time they have no choice but to tow the car. Similar situation happened to me but the police said if I can get a family member to come and drive the car away before the tow truck driver arrived then it was fine.. luckily my house wasn't far and my father arrived just in time.

Hope everything works out.

Thing is, she wasn't insured to drive the car, which is quite a huge offense. That, compounded with the fact that the cops already saw the guy drive while having his license suspended is like a double whammy.

Just out of curiosity, what kind of permission did you get? Verabal? If so, is that the norm and acceptable case?

but if that was the case what IF today i lend my car (say a mini van or a truck) to lend it to my friend/relative/gf;s mom to use for her moving or any other shit that they need for that vehicle. Does that mean insurance wont cover because NOT listed under the insurance??


:confused:

If your name is not on the insurance paper you shouldn't be driving the car.

Even if your allow or give permission for a 'friend' to drive your car, since his name is not on the insurance paper you run the risk of being pulled over by the police and getting in trouble. Same thing as operating a vehicle without proper insurance.

Is that how dumb ICBC rules are?

My insurance in Ontario allowed anyone within a certain age (mine was 25yo+) to drive my car periodically.

---

The mall parking lot should be private property, and AFAIK you're allowed to drive on private property without a valid license or even obeying the rules of the road (ie race tracks!). In Ottawa, bylaw could not even give you a ticket in a parking lot, cause the rules don't cover private property.

Is it really that much different here?

My friend is an insurance agent, we talked about this once too

Technically, anyone with a valid license can drive an insured car with insurer's permission. There's no law stating you can't lend your insured car to someone.
HOWEVER, if anything were to happen while so and so is driving your car and it's their fault, the insurer gets screwed.

So really, lend your car at your own risk.
My boyfriend was driving my dad's car, we got rear ended, lady who hit us admitted full fault, we were never even questioned.

Gut feeling: I think there has been a lot of misinformation in this thread so far.

yes, that's why you should not lend out your car.

Treat it as your wife and assume anyone borrowing the car is planing to gangbang her

that's actually how SMART ICBC is in making money.

Since an insurance quote is based on not only the type of cars one drives, but also his/her driving record, it is only logical that the insurance applies to that particular people. If you let someone else drive the car, the game changes and he/she is paying more/less than he/she should have paid for insurance. Otherwise EVERY teenager will have their parents take out insurance with roadstar status on their "performance enhanced Civic" and abuse the insurance system.

so what actually happens to the insurer if they lend the car out and the lender was at fault in an accident?

All i've heard different stories all the time, is there a definate rule?

^ICBC can deny claim and the lender will be stuck with all the costs with the accident.

The lendee, walks.

Correct me if I am wrong

So much misinformation here. You don't need to have your name on the insurance to drive a car. You should have permission from the owner to drive it. The insurance is tied to the car, which is tied to the principal operator. If you get into an accident, the principal operator's insurance takes the hit.

Case in point, my dad was driving my mom's car. He was backing out, and a girl hit him. ICBC deemed it his fault. My mom's insurance takes the hit, and she moves down 3 levels on the claim scale.

why the hell was ur gf pulled over in the first place?
burnouts? bj?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyM3HVdH1Kw

im pretty sure you can drive a insured car that doesn't have your name on it as long as its insured. my buddy was driving his gf's moms car and he got pulled over for not displaying N and ticketed. but they didn't tow the car cause his name isn't on the insurance paper, they just gave him the ticket n let him be on his way..

Is it just me, or does anyone else think his bro's gf should gtfo the road if she can't even park. How the hell did she get a license.

she's a female N driver

:D

+1. Presto got it right.

The gf can drive the car and is insured. If she gets into an accident, the car's insurance policy will respond.

Me thinks this is whole gf-driving/bf-parking, cops waiting for couple to finish their day in the mall to bust them is just a big elaborate story to maintain innocence.

Nice try but I'd rather bet that it was bf driving illegally as this concoction of a story is not even feasable of situation to begin with. Nice try.