Letter from police received

[Ethel Street]

Police information on who is Registered Keeper comes from same source as the rest of us get it from, the DVLA database. The police of course can access more information than us as we can't access the name and address of the Registered Keeper. How they got the Registration Number will depend on what happened  at the time of the RTC - did police attend? Was it provided to police by someone else involved in the accident? Seen on ANPR/CCTV? etc.

 

Is the car number quoted by the police similar enough to the real number of your daughter's car that it could simply be a typing error?

 

Does she know where she was on the date of the RTC  quoted in the letter? Was she in her own car in the area where the RTC took place? If police letter isn't specific she can at least assume RTC was in Northumbria Police area. Is that where your daughter lives/works/travels?

 

As a preliminary you can use this gov.uk site to check both your daughter's actual car and the one  the police are quoting to make sure they are recorded as completely different vehicles.  Do the deatils of the car quoted by police ring any bells with your daughter?

 

Get vehicle information from DVLA - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

 

There are many ways in which an error like this could arise so it's all speculation at the moment.  Your daughter needs to wait until Monday and call Northumbria Police. You think it's genuine but best to be cautious just in case. Safest way is that your daughter calls the published phone number of Police on their website and asks to be connected to the writer of the letter. I'm sure she should be able to sort it out.

 

Come back here after she's spoken to them and update us.

 

 

[Ethel Street]

We always shred everything with our name address on it, always have done. Even down to the labels on pizza boxes!

[Ethel Street]

11 hours ago, The GodMother said:

If someone is desperate enough they will put it back together.

 

Alarmist.

 

Only the most basic hand cranked shredder still shreds into long strips that you might be able to piece together. Pretty much every other shredder you can buy is cross-cut and there is no way that anyone could ever piece it together again, unless perhaps they can call on the resources of the Chinese Peoples Army to help them.

 

tbh this is bit of a red herring though. People wanting to steal information aren't that interested in stuff that only tells them your name and address because as others have said there are much easier ways of finding out who lives there.

 

On its own just the name and address is not that useful to fraudsters. They need to link it with other information, even something as simple as knowing your mobile number and email helps them a lot. It's personal financial information they are really hoping for - people who put stuff with their bank details in the bin etc 

 

[Ethel Street]

56 minutes ago, The GodMother said:

Yes the police said burn it. Sounds mad l know but hey they know best.

 

Not "the police", just what one police employee said. The police forces themselves do not issue any guidance that says burn don't shred.

 

Anway, I'm not going to digress from the thread topic any further.