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Owner of re-stolen truck see (s compensation
Page 12
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A STOWMARKET owner-driver is hoping to hear next week whether he will receive £12,000 in compensation from the Metropolitan Police after officers failed to prevent his recovered stolen truck from being re-stolen.
Robert Doherty reports that his solicitor is presently "liaising with the Met. She says I stand a very good chance."
Doherty discovered that his sole vehicle and trailer had been stolen at 6am in Stowmarket, Suffolk on 2 February this year. He
immediately informed the police and the vehicle was recovered in Romford, Essex only three hours later.
Doherty was then asked by police to go to Romford and collect the vehicle. However by the time he had reached the recovery site he discovered it had been re-stolen.
"The police had failed to secure it," he says. "No locks, no guards, nothing. My spirits had risen and then they came crashing down. "I was off work for two months and I had to take out loans to cover my debts. I was diagnosed with mild depression."
Doherty, who is 68. had planned to retire very soon. He has since found work as a driver for another firm and fears he will have to work for two more years to cover his debts.
"That's why I'm going for the compensation," he says. "But I also want to warn operators that informing the police immediately doesn't help that much." Doherty is referring to the 'Perspectives' column in CM last month in which detective sergeant Tony Moore urged hauliers to contact the police immediately after a vehicle theft (CM 27 July).
The police ask you to tell them first, not your governor," he adds. "But that's a bloody laugh. Even if the police find your vehicle, they still do nothing. Moore should get in the real world."
A Romford police spokesman told CM that the force had no knowledge of the incident.