Bob
11th May 2007, 00:29
UK Police will not conduct fingerprint or DNA tests to find who might have stolen a motorcycle… unless the victim pays for the privilege.
The new charges, which start at £105 have been introduced by the Home Office, have to be paid to whichever private company is in charge of recovering and storing stolen vehicles in your area. Owners will be given little choice – pay up if you want the case taken further, or try to find the thief yourself.
Storage already has to be paid for. When Glenn Burrows from Norwich had his 125cc Wu Yang bike stolen, he was delighted to hear it had been recovered by police less than a mile away. However, due to the Bank Holiday he was unable to recover the bike immediately. He said: “Because of the bank holiday I wasn't able to recover it until Tuesday, by which time I owed £150. I feel like I'm paying the police to do their job and I thought I was already doing that through my taxes.”
Norwich North MP Ian Gibson has attacked the charge, saying “If I had a vehicle stolen through no fault of my own and was then asked to pay for it to be investigated, I would be pretty angry. The police are always complaining that they are hard up, but this suggests they are now going down the road of privatisation. What's next? Will we have to pay for officers to attend a house burglary?”
Stephen Bett, chairman of Norfolk Police Authority, said: “If this has been foisted upon us by the Home Office, there is very little we can do - but I can understand why people are peeved by it. The fact is the Home Office is constantly trying to find methods to raise funds and this is just the latest attempt.”
The new charges, which start at £105 have been introduced by the Home Office, have to be paid to whichever private company is in charge of recovering and storing stolen vehicles in your area. Owners will be given little choice – pay up if you want the case taken further, or try to find the thief yourself.
Storage already has to be paid for. When Glenn Burrows from Norwich had his 125cc Wu Yang bike stolen, he was delighted to hear it had been recovered by police less than a mile away. However, due to the Bank Holiday he was unable to recover the bike immediately. He said: “Because of the bank holiday I wasn't able to recover it until Tuesday, by which time I owed £150. I feel like I'm paying the police to do their job and I thought I was already doing that through my taxes.”
Norwich North MP Ian Gibson has attacked the charge, saying “If I had a vehicle stolen through no fault of my own and was then asked to pay for it to be investigated, I would be pretty angry. The police are always complaining that they are hard up, but this suggests they are now going down the road of privatisation. What's next? Will we have to pay for officers to attend a house burglary?”
Stephen Bett, chairman of Norfolk Police Authority, said: “If this has been foisted upon us by the Home Office, there is very little we can do - but I can understand why people are peeved by it. The fact is the Home Office is constantly trying to find methods to raise funds and this is just the latest attempt.”