Motorist buys back his OWN £20,000 stolen car from dealership 70 miles away

By ANDY DOLAN

A motorist spent more than £20,000 on a replacement for a cherished car which was taken from his driveway - then discovered he had accidentally bought back his own stolen vehicle.

Ewan Valentine wanted to replace his Honda Civic Type R after it was taken from outside his home in the middle of the night. 

The top-of-the-range motor - which can do 0-to-60mph in six seconds and has a top speed of 168mph - was his pride and joy and Mr Valentine was desperate to replace it.

A few weeks afer the theft on February 28, an online search led him to what looked to be an almost-identical 2016 model in the same black paint finish at a garage 70 miles away. 

The car had a lower mileage than the stolen hot hatch and sported different number plates. 

But it was only after Mr Valentine, 36, had bought the vehicle and driven it home that he realised it actually was his old car.

The sofware engineer, from Solihull, West Midlands, said: 'In February my partner woke up around 5am to drive to her office, shouted 'Ewan, where's your car?'

'Slightly dazed, I looked out of the window and sure enough, the car was gone. 

'A few weeks passed, I was dealing with the police and the insurance company but not much was happening.

Ewan Valentine had been determined to replace his stolen pride and joy with a near identical replacement 

The Honda's odometer had been wound back and its number plates swapped

'So I decided to start looking to replace the car

'It was a bit of a midlife crisis car and you don't get many of those.'

Mr Valentine told the NeedToKnow website he began looking for a 'more or less identical car', and this one caught his eye because it had the same custom exhaust system as the stolen vehicle.  

'It seemed perfect', he added. 

The 'new' Honda was on sale at a reputable dealership. 

Mr Valentine added: 'I went down to the garage to check it over.

'But I think my judgement was a little clouded by how desperate I was to replace my car, so I didn't do the most thorough check.

'I drove it all the way back to Solihull to buy a steering wheel lock.'

 He said it was only when he then went to load up the boot and could smell beer in the luggage compartment that he began to suspect all was not right with the car. 

'I'd shattered a bottle of beer about a year before and could never quite get rid of the smell', he said. 

'So I could smell beer and I also noticed some wrappers in the central column that were mine.

'I started driving home, feeling a little strange about the whole situation because it could all have been a coincidence still.

'So I suddenly had the idea of checking the sat nav history.

'Sure enough there was my address, my parents' address, my partner's address and places we'd visited the previous couple of years.

'It then dawned on me that my phone connected instantly as I left the garage, rather than needing to pair it as a new device.

Mr Valentine still had the key to his stolen car - and found it opened the vehicle he had just purchased

'So it was pretty clear at this point that it was my car.'

Mr Valentine contacted the police and began checking the car for its Vehicle Identification Number (VIN).

'The Vehicle Identification Number didn't match my original car, but there were indications that things had been tampered with', he added.

'For example, a chrome embossed VIN number was missing from the engine bay.

'The VIN number on the door frame was a sticker, where you could previously see something was bolted.

'The engine serial number had been painted over.'

A few days later, police arranged for a local garage to examine the car and when the technician asked Mr Valentine if he still had his original car's key fob, they realised the fold-out key fitted in the lock and opened the vehicle.

Mr Valentine said an examination of the car's on board telematics revealed that the crooks had attempted to override the VIN in its Electronic Control Unit, which he said 'indicates how sophisticated these criminals are'.

Honda also found a gearbox serial number, which matched the original car in their  records, proving the vehicle had been cloned.

The car was purchased with invoices from the garage, including names of staff. 

'The Honda technicians pointed out no one with those names had ever worked there, and the phone number was wrong on the invoice', Mr Valentine added.

'They also spotted another invoice that was from a Honda specialist in the area.

'That same place had issued a statement a few days before, warning people that they'd come across a few fake invoices in their name.'

Mr Valentine said the car is awaiting forensic examination before police will hand the vehicle over to his insurance company. 

He said the insurers will 'either get it road legal again and in a position that it can be insured on my original policy again, or pay out for the car if that costs more than the car.'

Mr Valentine believes the garage he bought the car from was also fooled by the thieves.

'I really don't think they knew, down to how good a job the clone was,' he added.

'They were duped as well and they're a really good garage.'

But he now hoped to get his money and deposit back for the vehicle.

West Midlands Police were approached for comment.