Stolen Volvo 240. SE London. Found. But not good...

Its great that youve got your car back, ive had a car stolen in the past so i know exactly how it feels. Unfortunatly i didnt get mine back, and its only due to your super-sleuth abilities that you got yours back. Respect to you Sir.
It does leave me with 2 questions. How long has the yard been there, and how long has this been going on. When my Mk2 Granada went there was quite afew RWD fords going from the South london area. A Mk2 Granada was raced localy weeks after mine went in the same colour, and with the same aftermarket alloys, but it wasnt my car as it had a sunroof. It was almost like a decoy.
If there is any connection here you may have uncovered the root of all (if not most) evil. Legend.

I am the team captain of First Blood it is a family team that has been around for 3 generations. My name is Mark Taylor and my number is 07534956051.

Firstly this is not me having go, I just think that you need to hear the other side of this story!! I totally understand how the man feels about having his car stolen and I am really happy he has got it back.

First of all the bloke in question is a very good friend of mine, and I know for a fact he did not steal the car. He bought it in good faith with a set of keys and a logbook. So as far as he was concerned there was nothing wrong with the car. As for people saying it was too clean to race, I have raced many classic cars that would of easily been on the road for years to come. For example I bought a 3 litre s capri a few years ago and also a 2 door mk1 escort! And they were both immaculate and I raced the pair of them.
As for people saying the team should have life bans, this is totally out of order as this is not to do with the whole team just one member. As for the ranting on ovalchat, this has been removed as it has no relevance to the car in question. Putting photos of the whole team and my friends whole yard is not anything to do with what has happened!!

I have left my number and name as I am fed up with all the abuse surrounding my team, I will answer any questions that anyone has, I will answer them if they are relevant to the car that was found, as for anything else I don't want to know. We are a family team that enjoys banger racing and has never been involved in any kind of car theft. We spend our weekends enjoying racing and have done so for the past 40years!!

As I said at the start I am very happy that the gentleman has found his car and will help him out with anything he needs, if I can.

Thanks
Mark

Hey there. First post, but long time lurker and follower of this thread since the beginning. I'm glad you have found your Volvo, but sucks about the condition it's in. I used to live in Beckenham before I moved to Barcelona, and last Autumn I was offered a suspicious looking VW Samba split screen, still on Mexican plates. It was in a rusty condition, and suspiciously had an ancient Volksworld sticker in the windscreen, which got me suspicious. Funnily enough, it was on Jail Lane, and being pulled out of this address (On Google Maps opposite The Jail Pub.

maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Jail+Lane%2c+Biggin+Hill&hl=en&ll=51.315046%2c0.05608&spn=0.002055%2c0.005284&sll=53.800651%2c-4.064941&sspn=7.907151%2c21.643066&oq=jail+lane&hnear=Jail+Ln%2c+Biggin+Hill%2c+United+Kingdom&t=h&z=18&layer=c&cbll=51.315066%2c0.056161&panoid=s4o2OzSwOqGyZfVhz8awFg&cbp=12%2c75.73%2c%2c0%2c0

May be innocent, but a little too convenient after seeing this happening just a few metres down the road.

So within 5 days the car was taken, a logbook with the same reg number was 'found', it was sold onto a banger racer, moved to Jail Lane, and stripped. Sounds a bit too far fetched.

A good friend went to a national banger championship at the weekend, where he said there were a record number of Mk1 and 2 Granadas racing. He loved it and felt it was the best meet he'd ever been to, being a former banger racer himself. It's entertainment for those who choose to follow it, and on the rare occasion I go to local meets myself, I actually quite enjoy seeing modernish, pretty much worthless, run of the mill modern repmobiles have their final moments of glory. However, as in all walks of life, the minority totally ruin things for the majority and this thread has certainly raised my own awareness to the darker side of the 'sport'.
I really hope justice is forthcoming for the OP and that the whole thing serves as a warning for the muppet minority that decent folk will not tolerate this.

The trouble with checking logbooks is that some of the cars come from scrapyards and the logbooks have already been sent off. I've sold several cars to banger lads over the years and the majority didn't get the book off me cos I just sent them off as scrap.Got to agree with you bmcnut it's starting to come across as a them and us situation.As for them racing roadworthy cars it's the same as us that modify cars you buy the best you can afford to save on repairs/welding and to start with the best base you can get.Banger racers can be a good supply of parts to keep cars on the road,they're not all stealing cars to race it's a minority giving the rest a bad name.Whose to say some of the cars posted on here don't have a dodgy history to them,there's good and bad in all walks of life if you look on OVB forum there volunteering parts to help fix the car on here no one.s offered help and there's those that are just using it as an excuse to slag banger racer's off

I know it might be killing the most exciting thread I've seen in years, but shouldn't these discussions really be going on via the Police?

Fair point I suppose. As an opener, maybe ask him why it was covered with a tarp.

It's fine, official channels will be stuck to.
As far as the police...I was waiting to hear when they'd finished with the car in forensics so I could collect it.
Heard nothing.
Couldn't find a number for the pound on the ticket or on the met website. Had to get it from another forum.
Called the pound on Sunday, answer phone. Left a message. No reply.
Monday I call 101. They call the pound. The pound say I owe them £370 quid for recovery and tow. The operator says the only person who can cancel this is the attending officer. They message him to call me.
Tuesday I call them again in the morning, they send him another message. By 5 I'd still heard nothing. Call 101 again and they say I need to call crime management. Straight to answer phone.
Eventually after trying three different numbers I get through to someone at southwark. They rightly work out I'm supposed to speak to the ORIGINAL officer who filed the first report.
They message him and within an hour he calls me, didn't know anything had happened but said he'll sort it. A couple of hours later he calls back and told me the problem was....
The attending officer put the wrong code in for the tow, one digit off, so it was marked down as a recovery not a forensic lift hence the charges. This also meant the car hasn't even been tested yet.
It's happening now and they reckon within a week I can have it back.
As someone said in an earlier post on here or another forum you really have to be persistent with the police and try not to get curse word off. I'm trying...hard.
The guy on it now seems on it and has asked me to send him all I have so will be doing that in the morning. And via PM's and asking around (grew up in penge and went to school in croydon) I've got a fair bit.
That's it for now.
And I really don't want this to turn into a 'classics vs bangers? fight as a lot of help has come from both, most on the ovalchat are from pm's so maybe not as visable but as valid.
Thanks