Road traffic

Stolen vehicle - theft reported to police - constable finding vehicle empowered to treat it as abandonedClarke v Chief Constable of West Midlands Police: CA (Longmore LJ and Carnwath J): 28 June 2001The owner of a vehicle went away, leaving it in the claimant's charge.

On 10 April 1999 it was stolen.

The claimant reported the theft to the police.

On 11 April, a police constable found it unattended and, unable to contact the owner, arranged its removal.

The claimant, refusing to pay removal and storage charges, claimed that the police had acted unlawfully because the vehicle, having been stolen and the theft reported, had not been abandoned within the meaning of section 99 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 (removal of vehicles abandoned on roads).

The judge in the county court dismissed the claim.

The claimant appealed.The claimant in person.

Glyn Samuel (instructed by the Force Solicitor, West Midlands Police Authority, Birmingham) for the chief constable.Held, dismissing the appeal, that regulation 4 of the Removal and Disposal of Vehicles Regulations 1986 empowered removal of a vehicle if 'it appears to a constable to have been abandoned without lawful authority'; that the issue was not whether the vehicle had in fact been abandoned by its owner but whether, when found, it appeared to the constable to have been stolen; that the claimant had failed to establish that in the circumstances the vehicle could not reasonably have appeared to the constable to be abandoned; and that, moreover, absent evidence from the vehicle owner, the claimant was not a person 'who satisfies the authority that he is the owner' of the vehicle under section 101(4) of the 1984 Act and thus could not make the claim.