General Damage to property / taking the law into you own hands.

[Rustbucket]

Was talking to a solicitor and moaning about the infinite impossibility of any redress from scrots damaging cars.

He agreed but advised extreme caution when taking the law into you own hands if you catch them at it.

A) The law views damage to the person as much more serious than damage to property. Property can always be replaced etc. There is a grey area about being entitled to use reasonable force to defend your worldly goods (in English law, under s5 Criminal Damage Act 1971) but the degree of force used must be justified to a court.

B) Knacker culture encourages the use of weapons..specifically knives. The number of knife crimes is going through the roof due to the complete willingness of the bearer to stick it in somebody. You don't want to be the next statistic.

This solicitor is defending the owner of a classic Porsche up on charges of affray after doing serious damage to 2 guys attempting to kick the mirrors off it. They didn't run but stood up to him. The result was fast moving and interesting with both perps requiring hospital treatment. One has a fractured skull the other spinal injuries.

Porsche owner was arrested for affray but will probably face charges of causing ABH due to his excessive reaction. Not bad going for a middle aged accountant!

Be careful out there!

 

[udtrev]

WHAT did the Porsche owner hit them with ? & can we cheer him in court ?

 

[nicholasb]

Taking the law into your own hands is obviously a bit dodgy. Someone can break into your property and you will still get in trouble even though they are trespassing. It is good when people stand up to criminals, although its more and more dangerous as people seem more violent than ever (even children).

I personally agree that the Porsche driver should be let off. Those guys kicking his mirrors need a lesson in respecting others property. Crims have an easy life in the UK and crime is going to keep getting worse. I think the criminals have too many rights and victims and police need more power. If a criminal is committing a crime, I don't care what happens to them in the process.

The older I get the more extreme I feel. Its obvious that we need more extreme measures. If Robocop could be programed correctly, I would be happy for him to take the scum of the streets.

 

[glenndaleuk]

Interesting point. In the USA if you find a burgaler on your property you are quite within your rights to shoot him. There is no Argument. So whats wrong with our lot. They seem to have lost the will to do the right thing. Here If a villan drove a stolen car at a police officer they would call it attemted murder however the same does not apply to a member of the public.

All car thieves and burgalers come tooled up to do the job these instraments will kill if used in anger. Any member of the public in my view has the right to use whatever is at hand to do as much damage as possible to these thieves.
I also believe that a member of the public can reasonably assume that the villan is tooled up even if he isn`t. So allowing him to defend himself and property with whatever is at hand.

 

[doolahrock]

This solicitor is defending the owner of a classic Porsche up on charges of affray after doing serious damage to 2 guys attempting to kick the mirrors off it.

Man, that reminds me of an incident a few years back. I had come back from filming a wedding and was up until about 2-3 a.m having a few beers and watching some TV to relax. Then heard bashing outside which I immediately thought sounded like folk taking the boot to cars outside. Sure enough, Looked out the window and saw three guys kicking off wing mirrors all the way along the street outside.......including my Stilo

Perhaps stupidly, I run down the stairs from my flat to give chase when to my amazement the main offender sauntered in through the main door. Took him to task at which point he shouted back to his mates. At this point I saw sense and legged it back upstairs to the flat ready to call the police.

He ran upto the top stair where he lived with his father. He then came back down and started hammering on my door. At this point I was seriously concerned as I thought my wife would wake up and freak out.....so I opened the door.

He gave me this massive idiotic speel about how I had just moved in and had no right to challenge him...seriously. I told him I had bought the flat and for some weird reason he began to feel bad. I brought him into the flat ( I know, I know) and began talking to him. He said that he felt 'a right C""T' and that he understood that that not everyone could afford 40 quid to replace their wing mirror. What a hell of a shock he got when I produced a bill for 240. To be fair, his Dad's shock must have have been far worse when I presented the bill to him.

I took a little bit of comfort thinking he would never do it again. Well, he did. Not to me but I saw the tell tale signs one day and reported him sticking a note under the damaged cars wipers.....only fair.

His Dad told me he had chucked him out. Not what I wanted, but it could have been the B.......and the B cannot be harmed.

I should also mention this guy was 21 years old. Ridiculous.

 

[LittleRedB]

I had a similar incident a couple of years ago (I think I may have mentioned it in the past!!)....

Our sleepy little road had been the target of vehicle vandalism for about 6 - 8 months, thousands of pounds worth of damage had been caused but nobody had actually nabbed the culprits.

While walking the dog at about 01.00 in the morning I found 5 'kids' (late teens) kicking the crap our of the neighbours cars, jumping against the doors, kicking the wing mirrors off, walking on the roofs etc at . I managed to collar 3 of the 5 and yelled for a friend of mine who lived a few doors down to give me a hand. He duly appeared in a pair of tracky bottoms brandishing a baseball bat..............

Anyhow, long story short, the BIB turned up - kids denied doing it despite the fact that I actually caught them physically doing the damage and because I did not have video evidence and was not able to tell the BIB exactly who did what (ie youth no 1 kicked the green car, youth no 2 pulled the wing mirror off the blue car etc) the BIB said that they could not charge them however would summon them to the local Police station for a caution in the presence of their parents!

Well, the following morning the three of them turned up on my friends doorstep (who incidentally had his car damaged) and offered to pay for the damage. He asked if they were admitting to the damage and they said 'Yes'. Firstly he accepted their offer to pay for the damage, then he called the BIB to report the fact that they had now admitted to it!! The BIB promptly turned up and arrested them - they are now starting their working career with a criminal record!

Sad thing was that although they paid for the damage to my friends car they did not end up coughing up for the damage to anyone else's

 

[joelietz]

I had something similar happen to me. I had the use of my boss's car when he was away on holidays. I woke up in the middle of the night when my dog started barking. I looked outside my living room window and saw 3 youths in hoodies trying to break into his car! That was very disturbing but turning on the outdoor lights scared them off, thankfully!

I had a similar incident a couple of years ago (I think I may have mentioned it in the past!!)....

Our sleepy little road had been the target of vehicle vandalism for about 6 - 8 months, thousands of pounds worth of damage had been caused but nobody had actually nabbed the culprits.

While walking the dog at about 01.00 in the morning I found 5 'kids' (late teens) kicking the crap our of the neighbours cars, jumping against the doors, kicking the wing mirrors off, walking on the roofs etc at . I managed to collar 3 of the 5 and yelled for a friend of mine who lived a few doors down to give me a hand. He duly appeared in a pair of tracky bottoms brandishing a baseball bat..............

Anyhow, long story short, the BIB turned up - kids denied doing it despite the fact that I actually caught them physically doing the damage and because I did not have video evidence and was not able to tell the BIB exactly who did what (ie youth no 1 kicked the green car, youth no 2 pulled the wing mirror off the blue car etc) the BIB said that they could not charge them however would summon them to the local Police station for a caution in the presence of their parents!

Well, the following morning the three of them turned up on my friends doorstep (who incidentally had his car damaged) and offered to pay for the damage. He asked if they were admitting to the damage and they said 'Yes'. Firstly he accepted their offer to pay for the damage, then he called the BIB to report the fact that they had now admitted to it!! The BIB promptly turned up and arrested them - they are now starting their working career with a criminal record!

Sad thing was that although they paid for the damage to my friends car they did not end up coughing up for the damage to anyone else's

 

[s130]

A relative was (just retired) a deputy sherrif in the states. Has a magnum gun in their bedside table loaded with shot. Will stop but not kill any intruder. Anyway they smiled when I told them the following:

In the UK have to follow this code

1) Inform the intruder to wait a moment as UK law requires your firearm and
ammunition to be stored separately and locked up
2) Seek and unlock gun
3) Seek and unlock slugs
4) Return to intruder and a) read them their rights b) get their
confirmation that you shooting them is OK and appropriate force
5) Pull the trigger hoping you aim in not affected by your laughter at the
insanity of the situation