Not in a BMW any more...

[Alan_D]

thought i would post this up here, as its been a tough few months on me and i havent been on the forum much.

as some of you know we had our first baby in july (Cian) so when we found out about the pregnancy started having to make some plans. the M5 was put up for sale and i started looking for an X5 (got some great advice on the other forum at the time)

the M5 wasnt sellin, not so much as an offer, even viewings were rare enough and i was getting to the point where i was happy to chat with the donedeal headwreckers just to reassure myself that it would sell.
with the due date approaching and no sign of a sale i took a bank loan as id missed out on a couple of nice cars by not being a cash buyer.
the bank loan was in my account for around a week and id viewed a couple of stinkers when an 06 le mans came up on donedeal. after my few months of searching and seeing what prices they were dropping off donedeal at (not what they were sitting at), i thought it was priced well for a private sale so expected a few issues.

i called the seller, we spoke on the phone about the car, exchanged texts regarding spec and so on and eventually agreed a viewing on the following saturday.
saturday came and he called to say he was caught up with the kids but his friend could show me the car so that set off an alarm bell but it was by far not the strangest thing i had heard (i had brought my m5 to people, my brother had shown it and eventually I sold it in a hotel car park) so i agreed and went (cautiously) to view the car.

the viewing was fine, had a test drive, car was inspected by me, all paperwork was present and correct but the reasons for sale (to me) seemed obvious. the car was not well looked after externally: scratches, bumps and some sort of discouloration on the window trims, the "some tax" was actually 2 days worth and the interior clearly was owned by a pipe or cigar smoker. it was also not the spec i expected for a lemans (half leather, no sat nav, no sun roof) so we discussed the car, its merits and took it for a test drive.
all was fine and i said i would let them know if i was making an offer.

i had a think and a chat with the OH for a few hours and decided that the car had nothing majorly wrong and so had a chat with the seller. we talked about the hassle of selling a big engined car and needing cash (him for business and me for the baby) and i listed off the issues i had with the car (usual car buying tactics) and we agreed a price with a few quid off asking (pending an inspection on monday morning by valdas)

so monday came around and the same friend met me at valdas place, valdas gave the car the once over and mechanically it was fine, at the same time i did a cartell check on my laptop and all came back clear.

myself and the friend then went to the bank and withdrew the cash for the car (seller wanted cash and i thought nothing of it considering the bad press drafts get)

i filled out the log book, paid for the car and off i went.

2 weeks later i got the log book back in my name and the next day the gardai were at the door. the jeep had been sold by the owner for a fake bank draft and i had unwittingly bought it from the conman as the original owner had simply handed over all paperwork. it was reported to gardai a few hours after i had bought it.

the car had been on donedeal for a week (while still in possession of the original owner) and i had been talking to a conman who waited until the saturday to collect the jeep and show it to me.

i took on a solicitor to review the case and despite having a pretty strong legal argument with supporting cases (where documentation supports the sale etc) and the car being legally registed in my name, i lost in the district court on thursday gone and the jeep was awarded back to the original owner.

the judgement given was that , despite everything else seeming legit, i should have known that paying cash for the vehicle was strange (despite the original issue being a dodgy draft) and that i underpaid for the vehicle (despite my reasons, the judge accepted that the original selling price was more valid even though the jeep never actually sold for that price and the seller said he came up with the price from looking at dealer prices)

i learned my lesson strongly on this one, am out of pocket to the tune of nerarly 10k, have had to let my m5 go for buttons to pay some of the loan off etc

im just posting this up as

a) i know a lot of you and wanted to tell you what happened as i havent been on much and wont be in a BMW for a while i reckon and
b) i thought i did everything as much as i could and i still got caught out so maybe it will save someone else

with hindsight everything is always clear, but just so you know, you cant rely on the seller having the logbook, keys and paperwork, nor can you rely on cartell or motorcheck either. as the garda said to me, i could have completed the transaction in the garda station and nothing would have stood out.

the "friend" was just an out of work lad who got a few quid to show a car and was completely unaware of the scam, he came into the bank with me and was happy to be on cctv etc (reassuring me that he had nothing to hide) although he has never been found. i was, stupidly, just using first names, again probably a bad done deal habit since you get sick of weirdos and chancers.

this post ended up being way longer than i thought it would be and i still feel stupid for being tricked and sick for losing the money, and im still finding it hard to press the "post" button, but hopefully it will save some one else or maybe youll just get a bit of entertainment out of it

Alan

[FunkySeeFunkyDoo]

Oh my god, reading this has turned my stomach. Really sorry to hear this has happened to you Alan

[Cisk]

Wow that's shocking. And to think the original owner gets the car back Scott free despite him being the one who sold it to a bogey and got the fake bank draft.

[GerH]

So sorry Alan, that's awful. Hoping good karma will come your way...well due :-(

[Gar]

Gutted for you alan

[hamish262001]

Sorry to hear this. Its a shame courts didn't award 50/50 split

Sent from my HTC Desire X using Tapatalk

[Alan_D]

thanks for the kind words lads, had been waiting for a long time for the judgment and couldnt post anything about it until the case was over.
at this stage i had braced myself for losing everything but it still stung when the judgement was given.

with regards the 50/50 split, my solicitor advised that as it was a physical object the judge was forced to come down on one side or the other so we were open to reaching a deal before the case since it was obvious someone was going to lose out if we didnt. even though i felt the other side was somewhat responsible for my misfortune (i wouldnt have bought if he hadnt handed over the log book) we still wanted a fair outcome for all. but the other side didnt want to discuss and luckily, i guess, for him that tactic paid off.

[E90 Brian]

Sorry to hear that, hopefully the scumbags get caught

[kaveman]

God sorry to hear that, a bloody awful thing to happen. Was brave of you to tell us your story and talking about stuff helps. Is there anyway to track down the crook and get your money back?

[Curran]

Sickening!!

As mentioned earlier, Karma, hopefully you'll get a bit of luck come your way!! And that we'll see you back in a BMW soon!