On 20 August 2009 Scott was involved in a minor traffic accident that was a bit strange. According to him there was no damage done to either car when someone backed slowly into him. But on 15 October his insurance company sent him a letter stating that the other party had filed a claim against him.
Here is the claim:
Date: 25th August 2009
Mr S Lafferty
21 Calton Walk
Bath
BA2 4QQ
PROTOCOL LETTER
Dear Mr Lafferty
Claimant’s Name: Mr John Perez
Accident Date: 20th August 2009
Accident Location: Sea Front, Exmouth
Claimant’s vehicle: Mercedes ML56 BGO
Your vehicle: Shogun WU05 LCF
We have been instructed by Mr John Perez to claim damages in connection with the above accident.
Please confirm the identity of your Insurers. Please note that your insurers will need to see this letter as soon as possible and it may affect your insurance coverage and/or the conduct of any subsequent legal proceedings if you do not send this letter to them.
The accident circumstances are you drove into our client’s parked vehicle.
We consider this to be your fault by reason of negligence and/or breach of statutory duty because you:
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-
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- Drove at speed that was excessive in all the circumstances
- Failed to brake steer or otherwise control their vehicle so as to avoid a collision
- Failed to see or heed the presence of the Claimant’s vehicle
- Failed to keep any or any proper lookout
- Drove into collision with the Claimant’s vehicle when by the exercise of proper skill and care they could have avoided doing so
- Failed to make any or any proper use of their mirrors
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From the information currently available it also appears the Claimant has incurred the following losses,
namely:
Vehicle damage
In order to avoid any delay, an independent motor engineer has been instructed to inspect and prepare a
report. We shall make available the engineer’s report at the earliest possible opportunity.
On March 10, 2010 Scott wrote the following letter to someone named Sandy about this:
Hi Sandy,
First things first, my car was stationary at the time of the ‘Bump’. The 3rd party backed into me. And there was ‘NO’ damage to either vehicle, The speed of the Bump was near zero. Even though we were in the street, it was like a ‘Car Park Bump’ at a local store.
I have been driving sinse I was 16 years old and I’m 53 years old now, that is 37 years of driving with NO traffic accidents ever. I have been driving in Commonwealth countries for the last 20 years, that is more on the left-side of the road then the right-side. I am on a ‘L-Plate’ because I want a British license.
Location was Exmouth, Devon on August 20th 2009 at about 1:00pm at the intersection of Mamhead View and Victoria Road. In front of the pub by the outdoor garden tables. The 3rd party is John Porez driving ML56 BGO a Mercedes Benz.
Here is what happen. I had just come out of the a small car park and up to the intersection, as it was only a 10 meter move, I was moving no faster then 2 miles per hour. 3rd party car was just leaving a bad parking space in front of the pub garden tables. (see photo with black vehicle in front of pub, he was trying to use the space in front of that vehicle, the road narrowed to almost one lane at the convergence on the intersection). Bad because if you parked in that space, you would be both in the street at the corner, but also block the left-turn spot at the intersection. He had just moved forward from that space, up to the intersection.
I stopped at the in intersection behind the 3rd party car. 3rd party car pulled forward making a ‘left-turn’ on Victoria Road. I was still stopped when 3rd party car suddenly stopped in his turn and started backing up while reverse-turning back into where he had just come from, into the front of my vehicle. It looked as though he was straightening his steering wheels out, to get ready to then make a slightly right-turn on to Mamhead View Road. But he just backed up to much and bumped into my vehicle, and the bump was at a speed of less the 1 mile-per-hour.
After bumping into me, he then pulled forward in his car, about 3 meters, which now put him part way into the intersection. He then jumped out of the car and started screaming. The first thing he said was, and I quote “Can’t you see I was backing up, why did you not get out of my way”. He later also said he was “backing up to reposition”, I’m not sure if that was in reference to changing his mind from a left-turn to a mostly-straight-right-turn at the intersection, or trying to reposition into the bad parking space he had just left, of which would still put his car badly in the street and block the intersection. Then a turn-around in his words happened next, he went from him backing up into me to it was my fault because I was driving on a ‘L-Plate’. He then went into a new rage.
As the 3rd party was very hot headed and ranting and raving, I kept my distance. Within one minute of the bump, a man from the street was there, trying to calm the 3rd party down. It got a bit heated. The man from the street identified himself as an Off-Duty Police Officer from London (Officer Cliff Perkins), but this made the 3rd party even more upset, as he wanted some real ‘On-Duty’ Police Officers there.
This heated confrontation went on for quite a while, when 3rd party jumped into his car to call some real-police (999 no less). When the officers arrived the older of the two officers went to chat with the 3rd party and the younger officer came over to me and take my statement. The younger officer also took statements from other witness and my passenger I had with me at the time. I also saw the younger officer bend down to do a close inspection of the 3rd party’s vehicle. As I did not want to touch the 3rd party’s vehicle, I watched closely the officer using his hand to wipe around to try to find any damage, but no damage was seen. No damage was seen on my vehicle either.
As the third party was a very angry man, this whole event took over 1 1/2 hours of time to finish up and on our way. I could not find the Police case reference number, as I thought I had it written it down. But I did get some of the witnesses contact details. I know the younger police officer got some other witnesses that I did not get.
Best Regards,
Scott Lafferty
+44-7776-166-866
Witnesses:
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Cliff Perkins
Off-duty Police Officer, London
07957-686-359
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Nick Hubbard and friend, two people
70 Orchard Road, Birstall, Leicecester
LE4 4GE
07990-807-454
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C W Mans this was two people
11 Bruton St., London W1
0207-290-8900
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Mr. Vaughan with kids and wife
91 Blackwood Ave., Wolverhampton
WV11 1EB
They as others were scared of 3rd party
That is certainly a far cry from what Mr Perez claimed through his scumbag solicitor. I don’t think Scott was ver capable of intentionally lying about anything. But his insurance company just paid the claim…a total of £954.72.