A Local Council Has Towed A Legally-Parked Car And Told The Owner They Crushed It

An English council has had to apologise after towing away a legally-parked car and telling the furious owner it had been crushed. You just know this is going to be a good one.

Ben Tiller, of Colburn in North Yorkshire, had bought a lightly damaged Subaru Legacy to fix up and sell on, and parked it on private ground. That didn’t stop Richmondshire District Council, though, who thought the beaten-up old Subaru had been abandoned and simply towed it. Whoops.

Mr Tiller initially reported it as stolen and had to wait two months before the local police discovered that it was the council who had taken it. When he rang the council to, err, bend their ear over the matter, he was told that it had already been crushed. We can only imagine the burning rage the man must have felt.

Fortunately, when they looked again they found that it hadn’t actually been turned into a cube. Unfortunately, the errant council had already reported it to the DVLA as crushed, so it’s now worthless and illegal to drive on the road unless the records can be amended to show the Legacy is still intact, which apparently, the DVLA is unwilling to do.

Richmondshire District Council called the debacle a ‘genuine mistake’ and returned the car a week later, albeit with extra dents in it. We don’t suppose the people who towed and stored it took any particular care to look after it. The council’s insurers are now working with Mr Tiller to compensate him for his… unusual loss.

Via: Northern Echo