You grab their no claims bonus, I’ll kick him in the nuts
Four years ago when I was on a business trip my Land Rover Discovery was broken into in the carpark of Bristol Airport. It was parked next to the ‘security office’ in the long stay car park. The break in was caught on CCTV cameras whilst security cowered in their box. The crims then use iron bars to break into eleven other cars. They then used my vehicle to smash their way through the ‘security barrier’. All caught on CCTV.
The Police wander around Bristol Airport festooned with guns, mace, and other goodies. They have a nice little Police Station on the site as well where they can eat bacon sandwiches, donuts and drink tea. They saw nothing.
So don’t expect a full blown terrorist attack to be thwarted by this lot. We would be better off importing some Glaswegian baggage handlers to give any potential terrorists a good hiding.
Two weeks later having reported the theft to my insurance company, reporting it to the Police was a bit more difficult, as nobody responded to my request for a crime number, a ‘loss adjuster’ arrived, with ‘ I was a Policeman’ , written all over his face.
I was then subjected to an hour interview during which the implication was made that I had nicked the car myself. Despite the evidence of the ‘security men’ the CCTV cameras, and the damage to the security gate, and the fact I was in Aberdeen.
I had to fill out a twelve page statement, of who what why when, and get supporting statements from my colleagues in Canada.
The Insurance Company eventually paid up, two months later when they were about to be on the receiving end of a writ for breach of contract.
(The vehicle was eventually recovered by the drugs squad two years later, eight miles from the airport)
Today Mistress Guthrum has just been through the same experience, when one of her employees, had their company car nicked two nights ago, and it was used in a robbery. The first enquiry from the ‘loss adjuster’ was what was the background of the engineer was he reputable, had he a criminal record, was the company in financial trouble etc etc. She was made to feel about two inches tall and had to sign a witness statement.
Because of our previous experience, she asked him straight out, Have you been in insurance all your life. No, until two years ago he was a Policeman. What a surprise !
Old Policeman never die or fade away, they just find another job that allows them to carry on bullying the victims of crime, rather than catch hard core criminals. They work for Banks, Insurance Companies,the BBC and in Government.
ie ‘We know where you live’ (and we have ‘channels’ in which to check you out)