(Another) foreign bike impounded

great letter Kaos, but i’d leave the 6 kisses off the end :stuck_out_tongue:

i would allso request compensation fees to get home fees to get to the impound lose of time and such

It needs a personal touch :smiley:

I would make clear in the letter that the documents shown to the pound that released the vehicle were exactly the same as the ones the police saw when they impounded it. Any suggestion that the documents were translated in the mean time will not help.

It is important that the documents meet the definitions in the relevant legislation (Road Traffic Act 1988 and regulations made under that act). Don’t be surprised if the Police say the vehicle was impounded correctly due to doubt about the validity of the insurance documents, but the pound released the vehicle in error.

If the people posting above are right and his insurance is invalid, might it be a bad idea drawing the rozzers attention to the fact that he’s back out on an ‘uninsured’ bike?

Could be better to leave it on the back burner until he knows what’s what.

What errors did the police make?

It’s been established that the guy is resident & working here in the UK & as such under UK law has to register his vehicle in the UK immediately, which he has obviously failed to comply with.

Strikes me if anyone’s made an error it’s the bods at the pound, or maybe he just didn’t tell them that he was a UK resident when he went to collect it?

Right, considering i know well someone riding a non-uk plate bike I feel concerned. i agree with the post directly before me.

Firstly, before I start, i have often wondered how safe it is to state specifics in LB, I mean surely this forum is open and any nosy person can come and find proof of wrongdoings and go hunt people down. where do you draw the line? it’s hard to NEVER incriminate yourself.

The friend in question, sees the problem this way:

it says that enforcement is up to the police officer. so clearly there is some room for manoeuvre. it seems to me that if the dude complains all he’s gonna get is a re-evaluation, a closer look at his documents and they will decide it’s not OK.

secondly residency is described as living 185 days of the calendar year. so the friend (not greek dude) arrived in september and is leaving in may, so in 2011 he was here for about 90 days and it will be another 150 say in 2012 so its not 185 years in a calendar year, so this will be how he will argue if he gets pulled. then there’s the question of the license. he has a UK license because he lived in the UK 4 years ago and when applying for a delivery job was required to swap foreign license for a UK one. he since moved out of UK but didnt do anything about his license, because he was just going on a year abroad. how many students you know trade in their license on an ERasmus year abroad?
now he’s back on a foreign bike with a uk license. this is gonna be the most challenging to present. i guess he will have to say that he saw no point trading it in when getting the bike as he thought he would work in the uk once more and so become once more obliged to trade it in again, and surely the police prefer having people riding around on uk licenses so they can get points and fines and stuff. but that still leaves a pretty bad contrast of uk license and adress and foreign insurance and address. so it has to be hoped that the police will accept that it is the most sensible arrangement to keep the uk license while he’s here and then in may when he moves out of his bedsit and the uk then he will go trade in his uk license abroad.

No. To take advantage of EU rules on cross border motor insurance you have to be a visitor who has their normal residence outside the host-state. In other words, for a Greek insurance document to be valid in the UK the person must normally live in Greece and be a visitor in the UK. Someone who intends to stay in the UK, for example, because they have permanent work here, can’t claim to be a visitor if they intend to stay here.

The EU rules require someone intending to permanently move to another member state to register their vehicle and insure it in the country they are moving to. The 185 day rule exists for people moving between states, but doesn’t stop you being a resident if you intend to stay in the country when you arrive.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/BuyingAndSellingAVehicle/ImportingAndExportingAVehicle/DG_10014623

The purpose of the EU rules is to aid people moving between countries for work or recreation, not to stop people being subject to the law in the country where they are permanently living and working.