Does anyone have any first hand experience on this one or a similar issue. My sister had her car stolen at the start of the year. The value was $1000 so she paid third party insurance but not Fire and Theft. Car was stolen and burnt out. She managed to do some detective work and found out the three young boys involved in the theft/fire of the car. The cops have now arrested and due to their ags, they will be going through via the Youth Courts. My sister has been advised by the police officer, that they will be requesting reparation and this will be sought from the parents of the children. I didn't believe this was possible (sounds great though) and how they would make three separate groups jointly and severally liable! It's not a lot of money, but when it was your only means of transport and funds are tight, it can really impact. I'm looking for the legal avenues - not the Spalding options just yet. Cheers
elvis58,
Nov 14, 2:40am
Go talk someone like citizens advice or free community law, you will get good and accurate information from them .
doublek,
Nov 14, 2:49am
Thanks Elvis - good advice as always!
bitsy_boffin,
Nov 14, 4:04am
If they are legally youths, then yes the parents/guardians can be liable for the reparation.
kazbanz,
Nov 14, 5:29am
Doublek. I would STRONGLYreccomend your sister getting all the details of the car and getting 3 independant WRITTEN valuations. Take a copy of each valuation. Supply these valuations to the procecutions officer concerned. This makes it impossible for any defence to argue the value of the car. DO be aware that you may very well find she is repayed at $10 a week due to "poverty" and that if payments stop the courts are a bit slack in follow ups
marte,
Nov 14, 5:57am
If they show up to the meeting & their parents are there, expect to get $ from the parents instead. Don't drop the value at all, if you do that for one person, the others $ get dropped too. Don't settle for the $10 bull, its costing you, you don't have to give them a discount. If one or 2 don't show up then you should expect for the ones that did show up, to pay the full amount, they had the chance to not show up to the crimes itself. Don't settle for less. (they did the crime together, if one dosen't show up, thats their problem) If they were chummy with the offender, they should be able to get the $$ from the ones that didn't turn up or they don't learn from the experience.
In my case, one showed up, I got $50 & the other didn't, then the so called 'Law' didn't bother trying to get the $$ from the other person & would have dropped it from$500 to 50 if they knew about that.
Later on the so called 'Law' did a '1984' & simply made the facts dissapear, that way it shows up as a 'cleared fine' & looks good on paper, even if I didn't get MY $500. Making me a victim again. Now they won't even acknowledge the papers I have.
doublek,
Nov 14, 11:08pm
Kaz - are you okay if I contact you on this!
kazbanz,
Nov 14, 11:29pm
no worries
thejazzpianoma,
Nov 14, 11:56pm
Its because of experiences like yours that I like to remind people from time to time that we need to demand more from our Police. Luckily your damages are only limited to property, sometimes lives are lost or ruined through similar shoddy Police work. Thats all I will be saying on the matter here though, I don't want to ruin the OP's thread.
kazbanz,
Nov 15, 12:53am
NO jazz its NOT the police in this or similar cases. Its the "justice system" that panders to the scum. In MY case the lowlife did $2500 damage. The damage was itemised,photographs presented and 2 quotes supplied. Yet even so the scum was only ordered to pay $1000.00 damages because he was a poor unemployed yoof. This was NOT in any way lack of trying on the part of the Police it was what was ordered by the courts. The way I see it I should have got the $2500 PLUS damages for loss of use of the vehicle. Sounds like the same in the case of the poster you quoted. it is NOT the police that set the reparation level its the courts. I know that sounds like hair splitting but its important to specify where the issue lies.
drew2009,
Nov 15, 12:55am
As has been said you may get your reparation, but if the parents are under a certain income you will only get it at about $10pw and there will be nothing you can do about it at all.
drew2009,
Nov 15, 12:57am
Or if you are really unlucky none will show up and you will get nothing. I can also see lawyers spinning this in any number of ways. Crap position to be in thats for sure.
kazbanz,
Nov 15, 1:02am
Incidently I was witness to a pretty savage beating of a young lady out clubbing in queen street auckland one friday night. A gang of young females had her down on the ground and were beating her withing seconds. They grabbed her bag and were off in the time it took me to runthe 20 meters to her aid.I clearly identified four of the girls concerned and they were taken away by the cops. Hours later they are back out on the streets-the cops hands are tied because of the youth offender laws. Theres something seriously wrong when a callous and calculated assault is able to go in essence totally unpunished.
marte,
Nov 15, 1:24am
Can the OP use a 'attachment order', its where, if the person(s) don't have enough money, the Police & you go the their house & attach themselves to anything worth anything & get to take it instead of the reperations.
A idiot I know bashed a old lady & stole her handbag, I caught him breaking into my house a couple of months ago, now he's doing 26 months. It was only a matter of time before caught him doing something else.
elect70,
Nov 15, 1:28am
Dont hold your breathsoft cockjudgeswill just order family conference ,You will probably have to take civil action if want to recover your loss . But it will cost you as much & outcome isnt certain .Just write it off & next time get full insurance
cyborg_nz,
Nov 15, 1:46am
Ok my experience comes from my son and being on the other side
About 5 years ago my son was involved with a house break in about $10500 of gold jewelry was taken none was found on the group
We all got called to a meeting (only one was old enough to go to court) the meeting started as a group then broke up in to family groups(3 groups) We were told reparation would be a good thing and to make an offer of it would help in the kids cases
I went ok fair enough 10500 divided by 3 is 3500 so made that as an offer I mean 1/3 of the cause 1/3 of the Reparation sounded fair to me.
I have since found out the Reparation went like this
Group one (my family) Reparation = 3500 Paid (son still paying me) Group two Reparation = 500 offered but never paid Group Three Reparation = 0 (3 months PD court sentence)
Group one and two both got the same physical sentence 80 hours community service
After going through this and seeing how it works I don't have much conferdince in the Reparation system
Funny thing is last I heard was the kids from group two and three are now in jail on other offenses but I think that has more to do with the conversation I had with my son about consequences He's doing quite well now training to be a mechanic
sakofan,
Nov 15, 3:32am
Someone I used to work with had their Holden stolen by three young teenagers who were soon caught. Only punishment they got was a "Whanau meeting" where the parents laughed with a "They're just kids" attitude and walked out. The young troublemakers laughed as well, knowing they are off scott free.
advantage001,
Nov 15, 3:36am
You have every right once the 3 involved have been convicted, to take a civil suit against them for your financial losses. This can be taken through the disputes tribunal and will cost you under $70 depending on what you are claiming for.As they are underage however their parents will need to be present.Good luck, once they have a conviction from the police, then your civil claim really is a piece of cake.
foxdonut,
Nov 15, 3:46am
I strongly advise you to seek out what "reparation" means here. When the old man had his boat nicked 10 years ago the police "sought reparation" which resulted in fining the offender and pocketing the money for their efforts.
Before you do anything else, make sure that its actually you / your sister that's getting paid. You may need to lodge a separate claim alongside the police claim.
Sounds stupid I know, but that's how it went down.
kazbanz,
Nov 15, 5:29am
Doublek. I would STRONGLYreccomend your sister getting all the details of the car and getting 3 independant WRITTEN valuations. Take a copy of each valuation. Supply these valuations to the procecutions officer concerned. This makes it impossible for any defence to argue the value of the car. DO be aware that you may very well find she is repayed at $10 a week due to "poverty" and that if payments stop the courts are a bit slack in follow ups My advice is based on personal and recent experience of a similar situation (vehicle deliberately damaged by a yoof)
doublek,
Nov 15, 7:05am
Thanks guys (and gals) for your input. Having perused the youth court site, it appears that a family conference will be likely and one of the outcomes they push for is reparation (financial "make good" of the loss). As most have said, these have the power of a AA battery, so I am looking towards how to attach the parents. My sister has done some investigating (I swear the police could do with her working some of their cases!) and has worked out that at least one of the parents is well to do. As an aside, I think this is where some of the problem comes from. Apparently she bought him a flat screen TV out of the blue, but he sold it on to buy drugs. My sister has said that getting the money is 50% of it, but knowing that these boys suffered loss in the process or had to work their jaxies off is the other 50%. I will try and find some spare time to call Tony (Kaz) as the quotes were one of the things I hadn't thought of.
jason_247,
Mar 6, 12:46am
worth a read if they are told to pay and dont
as was said the courts do bugger all to catch them
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