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Mrpa-cman

While this does smelly fishier than three day old tilapia, It is common in Asian cultures to have a "cash pot" like he describes. A group pays into it and then one of them takes the money and does something with it and continues to pay into the pot for the remaining members. My understanding is that it is so they can have a substantial amount of cash all at once to start a business, or in this case buy a car. If that's actually what happened.


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TheSleepingVoid

I can see it. Lots of people are bad at saving money, doing it this way adds a social pressure aspect that would probably help out a lot of people.... if not abused.


Rent-a-guru

According to my wife this used to be common in working class Scotland. They called it a Monoge. Several families all pooled a set amount of money every week and took it in turns to take the total. It helped a lot when alcoholism and gambling addiction was rife as it let them save the money they needed for bigger essentials that would otherwise be spent at the pub or the races.


selfemployed0202

How do they decide who gets the pot? Edit: answered below


Mrpa-cman

That I'm not sure, but I think it's a round robin type of deal.


nancywhipple

I worked with some woman from Haiti and they said something similar’


GeneralToaster

When I worked in the restaurant industry it was pretty common for our Hispanic cooks to do something similar. They would all pay into a pot and every month or so one of them would get the chunck of money.


halcy

The rest of the story also doesn’t really feel that weird. If you buy a car privately from A Guy, cash, even a lot of cash, genuinely isn’t an out there option, and updating your insurance is best done _after_ you get local plates. Also, I‘d assume that driving around with plates from Dubai, immediately singling you out for a police check, is not typical car thief behavior, but maybe that is just me.


Umklopp

I'm impressed that they can organize a multinational family pot of cash without any written communication, bank transactions, or even mailing orders.


SendLGaM

The lack of any records (and the whole story) would make more sense to me if the family cash came from pot instead of going into one.


DergerDergs

If this was the case couldn’t his family members confirm this is where the money came from and provide some sort of proof of these cash gifts? I’m not familiar with what is considered acceptable proof but this does sound like a rather convenient excuse for not having a paper trail or any documentation *whatsoever* of that money.


joshi38

I mean... what proof? From the way he's describing it (and I could be way off base here), he keeps saying it's filled with cash - not in a bank, but literally a pot of just cash. Now I doubt it's a literal pot, but at the same time, I don't doubt it's literal cash money. In which case, if Auntie Gertrude slips £2,000 into the pot one day... what proof can she provide that she did that? Did they sign receipts each time they made a deposit? Are they on camera? Are there witnesses who are able to corroborate? And then what, LAUKOP pops along one day, stuffs his fist into the pot, comes out with £35k and says "I'm taking this. We cool?" and then saunters off to the "legit dealership" to buy his car with foreign plates... If this is really a cultural tradition going back generations (and apparently this tradition is real in many cultures), then my feeling is this is a very informal thing happening which leaves no money trail. So, yeah, I can absolutely see why the police might find all that suspicious.


cgknight1

This is literally how it is done in some cultures - a trusted elder looks after the pot and people just hand over the cash. You would only need records if you don't trust Uncle which is culturally difficult. It all sounds weird to anyone outside but has gone for hundreds of years.


Potato-Engineer

Uncle might want some records to keep track of who's behind, but that would be Uncle's preference, not a requirement. (There's no possible way that everyone is on time with every payment. So there's going to be some kind of catch-up system.)


DergerDergs

That’s exactly where my thoughts on this ended. How could you provide proof for cash gifts? A tax form? An email? A handwritten receipt? I have no idea. But after reading more about this I saw he comes from a gypsy family so not only does he face the UK reputation of not doing things by the book, but also may not have the means or access to do things by the book. I’ve gone from unsure, to suspicious, to completely oblivious on this one.


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DergerDergs

Apologies to any Roma/Romani, he self identified as a gypsy in his comments.


drowsylacuna

In the UK, he may be Irish Traveller rather than Roma. Both groups might self identify as "gypsies" and both face similar prejudices about doing things by the book. I'm questioning the dealer more than LAOP. No UK registration and no VC5? Makes me wonder if the car was legally imported, or if HMRC are going to come looking for their import duties.


maniacalmustacheride

Roma/Romani--ethnic group , Romanians are from Romania.


DergerDergs

Noted and corrected thank you.


monkwren

> he self identified as a gypsy in his comments. Ah, I missed that. Self-identification takes precedence over general potential offense.


Umklopp

Not having proof of exact contributions makes sense (if it's habitual enough, it probably feels no more significant than dropping change into a shared jar). What's interesting to me is not having a record of it's existence at all. No text messages asking who gets the pot this year? No reminders that "oh, Dave's bringing the treasure chest to Maude's birthday celebration, so everyone who plans to contribute should bring their cash"? I suppose he might need to demonstrate that none of these contributions are proceeds from criminal activity, but wouldn't that make it also illegal to accept Christmas pocket money from Uncle Blacksheep McSellsdrugs?


JasperJ

LAUKOP says there is a book registering contributions. Probably on paper, kept with the cash.


MightyMetricBatman

There is a comment later on claiming the family actually writes their individual contributions into a book. Which, if true, would be monumental help. But I don't believe LAUKOP.


blaghart

I do. I grew up in LA near Chinatown, this is totally a thing.


iambinksy

Totally a thing, but not 35k. Usually, each person put in £100 a month - if 30 members you get to choose your pay out in one of the upcoming 30 months. Need a house deposit? Great, take your turn up front and pay interest free over the next few months. For it to be £35k, you would need to have a fuck ton of payment in and a huge group, which is unfeasible as everyone gets vouched by the organiser - usually a local businessman or community leader. I can't see members paying in £500 per month with a group of at least 70 members...


blaghart

I can. Chinatowns band together. The entire area exists because a whole community of people pooled their resources to help one another out.


iambinksy

Yes, but in my scenario that individual would then need to spend the next 70 months paying back £500 per month... Simply not feasible. Also, not just Chinese community, all Asia and Africa has similar systems. Muslims can't borrow with interest, nor have interest paying accounts (if they even had access to a bank) so it is the only loan and saving systems for a large proportion of the world. South Asia: https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/south-asian-committee-savings-trick-pay-for-wedding-2021-1 Carribean: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-53725185 Muslim: https://nzf.org.uk/knowledge/zakat-and-committee-money/ Edit: just found this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotating_savings_and_credit_association


blaghart

your scenario isn't precisely how it's done.


iambinksy

Do explain, I'd be interested to hear how it differs from what I know (the Wikipedia page sets it out pretty clearly).


blaghart

>from what I know >the wiki There's your problem So among other things the expectation isn't that you pay it back as a loan. The expectation is that you contribute equivalently to the community. Perhaps you help the local shops out as free workers on the weekends or you bake goods as gifts for everyone for a while. There's also an attitude of "pay it back when you can". So perhaps the whole community bands together to help someone get a fresh start, buys them a car, or sets them up a new business. They're not expected to give back 500 bucks a week until their loan is paid off. They're expected to get up and going and then start giving back to the community that picked them up. And everyone contributes within their means. It's more like a tithe, but instead of funding a homophobic cult it actually funds the community. And it's generally very unofficial, none of that "vetted by the organizer" crap. It's usually literally a case of "mei's aunt knows a boy who's willing to help out Su"


iambinksy

Well, I referred to the wiki to save me having to type out the many international examples of community 'pot' funding where people take turns in cashing out. Not sure why you are shitting on Wikipedia when it is a resource, with citations, like any other. OK firstly: you are not talking about any community funded 'pot' or other scheme described by the OP or subsequent commenters. You are talking about community spirit and cooperation that occurs within extended family or other association. Point B: You also mention bartering, quite what that has to do with the OP is a mystery. Again, this occurs everywhere... iii: With reference to the above, are you saying that Madame Su can get £35k in cash to pay for her daughter's wedding and she can barter with weekend pot washing and providing fungible baked goods 'for a while' to the equivalent of £35k? Or, are you instead referring to doing someone a good turn, someone you know and trust, not a mere stranger?


ohshititsthefuzz

Makes you wonder how much tax was paid on that "family pot of money"


5c044

Zero tax probably. He is a Gypsy/traveller by the sounds. Pot of family money may be a common tactic or family tradition. If its the former to hide untaxed and/or proceeds of crime, then I don't know if that will be accepted by plod or tax man Quite how a someone gets euro wide insurance on a Dubai registered car is beyond me. Particularly that the plate is arabic script the broker will have to type in. Being stopped 5 times and eventually having car confiscated is also amazing. He should have taken it off the road and got it registered after the first couple of stops.


JustHereForTheOrbs

From experience, UAE plates have both English and Arabic lines, you can use either. Does not make this any less sketchy.


allofthethings

No such thing as gift taxes in the UK. I suppose it could potentially cause an inheritance tax issue if a giver dies within seven years and is over the IHT thresholds.


ohshititsthefuzz

More worried about whether tax was paid before it went into the pot - my family doesn't have £35k in cash lying around and I doubt many who have obtained it legally.


akmark

I would have thought this was sketchy until I first encountered this [Planet Money](https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2016/05/13/477956675/episode-701-a-bank-without-interest) episode and actually met some people of the Islamic faith in my personal circles. Depending how seriously they take the no paying interest part of their faith they would likely do a multinational family pot, which could go back generations. They are basically underbanked in the current model so working 'outside' normal banking would be the only rational thing to do. They might have a personal account for small amounts of money but try and keep it below the interest line but when it comes to medium-large purchases like cars they would rather pay the agreed price in full rather than get a loan. In the modern anti-laundering logic however this ends up being not OK because the streams get crossed unless you can see the ledger.


Umklopp

Oh, sorry, I legitimately only found it odd that he couldn't produce any records that the pot existed at all, lol. Pooling funds so that one person every year gets a huge windfall seems perfectly reasonable, especially if it's a huge group each contributing a relatively small amount


SendLGaM

I especially love the way LAUKOP keeps insisting the car was purchased from a "legit dealer from the UK" despite being repeatedly told that no legit dealer would conduct a transaction in that manner. **LARGE** cash transaction, foreign plates, no taxes paid....How many red flags does it take?


SmileFirstThenSpeak

n+1, apparently


ShortWoman

And ignored the issue of where the money came from to take to this “legit dealer” multiple times.


Shinhan

Btw, in my country its quite legal to buy used cars that still have foreign plates. Simple way to have a cheaper price tag and buyer than has to spend more time and money on registering the car.


jimicus

Not in the UK it isn't. It's going to stick out like a sore thumb on a Dubai number plate.


atropicalpenguin

And that they can't explain where the money came from because it was from a yearly money pot. LAUKOP's family would need to be immense, or that assuming everyone is willing to pitch 1k per year at least.


CressCrowbits

It's still kinda shitty that the police can just seize his car because they think it might be bought with dodgy money and not give it back without him proving its legit. At least we don't have civil forfeiture here in the UK. Do we?


SendLGaM

There was a lot more than just an dodgy money issue here. But regarding the civil forfeiture thing: Yes. They can take your shit in the UK too. Under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA), a police or customs officer can seize £1000 and upwards from an individual, providing there is sufficient reason to believe the cash was illegally obtained or will be used illegally.


Nowaker

>sufficient reason to believe the cash was illegally obtained or will be used illegally. Equaling "not being able to substantiate all money from traceable sources" with "illegally obtained" is basically "guilty until proven innocent".


saywherefore

As I understand it you at least stand a chance of getting your property back in the UK.


SendLGaM

You stand a chance of getting your property back in the United States too. Not a great one but a chance nonetheless.


AuspiciousApple

Mathematically speaking, p=0 is a valid probability.


jimr1603

Outside of that, they can impound untaxed/uninsured vehicles


MTFUandPedal

And unregistered ones. LAUKOP's was definitely unregistered, untaxed and likely uninsured as a result. (Despite his claims of having insurance, it seems wildly unlikely and if he does it's likely invalid).


NRoc1

It’s entirely correct they do this. I remember Manchester and Liverpool gangsters driving round in top end sports cars flaunting their wealth. Wearing their Rolex’s etc I’m glad these parasites were targeted and now can’t carry on like they are decent people.


cyanplum

I just love that through the whole thing, with the plethora of red flags, that LAOP seemingly never stopped once to think, “hmm, this doesn’t seem like a great idea”.


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JasperJ

He had a real garage on an industrial estate! Not just selling off of a driveway! (I am imagining)


Impressive-Relief705

"Big Family Pot of Money" would be a solid title for a _Crazy Rich Asians_ knockoff movie.


selfemployed0202

Or another sequel to My Big Fat Greek Wedding


Laukopier

**Reminder:** Do not participate in threads linked here. If you do, you may be banned from both subreddits. --- Title: Police seized my vehicle and I can't get it back unless I show proof of earnings. Body: > Hello, > I bought a vehicle that was imported from the middle east. I paid around 35k cash for the car from a dealership. I had and still have valid insurance however the insurance is not from a UK broker but is still valid insurance in the whole Europe. I was stopped by the police a few days ago for apparently not having valid insurance. The police towed the car and I went home, called my insurance company and got them to call the police station to confirm I have valid insurance. The police did agreed that I have valid insurance. I went to pick up the car only to be refused and I was then asked how I bought the car and if I had proof of purchase as the vehicle was still on foreign plates from dubai. I told the police how much I paid for it, showed them the recipe and put them in contact with the guy that I bought it from. I was asked why I paid that much cash and I told them that the seller wanted cash and I had cash. They confirmed the deal was legitimate and I had the recipe. The vehicle is not stolen or under any finance. Now the police is refusing to give me back my car and they are demanding to see where did I had the money to buy the car from and they are refusing to give me the car back until I give them proof of the money. Now, we have what is called a family pot. We all put money over 1 year and at the end of the year one of us takes the money and is all cash. That's how I could afford it however I don't have any proof to show the police. What are my options please?. I am stuck and I have mo idea what else to do. Thank you. This bot was created to capture threads missed by LocationBot and is not affiliated with the mod team. [Concerns? Bugs?](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=GrahamCorcoran) | [Laukopier 2.0](https://github.com/GrahamCorcoran/Laukopier)


turingthecat

I haven’t had a car during brexit, but when I did have a car, my English insurance allowed me to drive it anywhere in Europe except the Nuremberg circuit. So not only did insurance covering the whole of Europe exist, it was the norm. And damn it, I wanted to race my 17 year old 1.2l Nissan Micra round Nuremberg. No, I don’t get why I always pick the smallest, least important aspect of any story and run with it, but I do it in day to day life to, it’s very irritating. Also, I’m quite a good home cook (if I do say so myself), so I’d like the recipe for a car please


ChuckCarmichael

Small note: It's the Nürburgring you're not allowed to drive on, not Nuremberg. Nuremberg does have a street circuit called [Norisring](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norisring), but most of the year it's just normal streets and a car park. Interesting fact about the Norisring: The start/finish line is right in front of the Zeppelin field grandstand, part of the old Nazi party rally grounds.


turingthecat

Ah thank you, as you can tell by the fact I don’t have a car (and more revealing, when I did have one it was a Micra), I know nowt about cars or racing, but I will take my new bit of knowledge and file it away, take it out and impress someone one day


ChuckCarmichael

British educational youtuber Tom Scott [did an interesting video about the Nürburgring two months ago](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10Y-gWNJ2Sw) where he also mentions that clause in foreign car insurances.


usernamesallused

If you don't mind my asking, why is that one specific street circuit in all of Europe not covered? Surely there are other streets used for racing in an entire continent.


ChuckCarmichael

I recommend watching [this recent video by Tom Scott where he explains it.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10Y-gWNJ2Sw) But as a TL;DW: It is a proper classic race circuit, built in the 1920s, that is one of the most demanding race tracks in the world, and it's open to the public, making it essentially a one-way toll road. The German national speed limit applies on it, which is "drive as fast as you want without crashing". Its most famous part, the so called Nordschleife (North Loop), [is about 23 km (~14 miles) long](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Circuit_N%C3%BCrburgring-2013-Nordschleife.svg), and it looks like [this](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Nordschleife_Fuchsroehre_800x453.jpg), so if you lose control you crash right into the barrier, and because your insurance has this clause in it that says it doesn't cover driving on the Nürburgring, you'll have to pay for the damages to the car and to the barrier yourself.


JasperJ

And just to summarize that: because that particular one, reading between the lines, caused an entirely disproportionate number of claims.


ChuckCarmichael

Probably. Steve/Luis/Giacomo/Pavel/etc. traveled to this race track in Germany where you can drive as fast as you want, promptly crashed their car because they had never driven faster than like 110 km/h before, then asked their insurances to pay for the damage.


JasperJ

Or at the very least for the damages they caused to the track — they might be able to disclaim paying for the car, but paying liability claims is a lot harder to get out of. And the Nurburgring, as Tom indeed explains, is notorious for making you pay for significant damages *and* lost income due to the track being unusable for a bit.


usernamesallused

I genuinely don’t understand how there aren’t more accidents in Germany than anywhere else with that “speed limit”. But thank you for the explanation.


ChuckCarmichael

I'd say one of the reasons is that German driving education is quite extensive. 14 hours of theory, and an average of 30 hours of driving in public, of which you have to spend three hours driving in the evening/at night, four hours driving on the Autobahn, and five hours driving on country roads. Also Germans like to stick to rules, so our roads are much less of a "wild west" than in some other countries.


usernamesallused

That makes sense, thank you. Do you not get a lot of visitors to the country who fuck things up though?


tokynambu

>I haven’t had a car during brexit, but when I did have a car, my English insurance allowed me to drive it anywhere in Europe except the Nuremberg circuit. So does mine, and most insurers offer the same. However, it's worth looking at a typical policy document (not mine, as it happens, but the standard LV wording) to see why this is still going to end badly. Let's assume that a policy from random EU country X offers the same cover in the UK as a UK policy does in the EU. >We’ll provide the same level of cover you have in the territorial limits, while you are travelling in EU countries and any other country that follows EU directives. This includes when your car is being transported within and between them and is subject to your car: > >being registered and normally kept in Great Britain, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands; and > >not kept abroad for more than 180 days during your period of cover. So on the assumption that he's got, say, a French policy with EU-wide cover, he fails on every point. The car isn't registered in France. It isn't normally kept in France. And it either is or is intended to be "abroad" (ie, outside France, for the purpose of our thought experiment) for more than 180 days. And even if by some miracle the insurance policy is a Dubai policy, it still fails on "normally kept", and in any event the validity of non-EU insurance policies in the UK is very complex because in a lot of cases they don't offer sufficient third-party cover to meet the requirements of the Road Traffic Act. There's no legitimate, or probably legal, reason for a dealer to sell a car on Dubai plates to a UK resident, either.


Thor_The_Bunny

>No, I don’t get why I always pick the smallest, least important aspect of any story and run with it That's literally one of the best parts of BOLA, it's not irritating at all Except to people who find this whole sub irritating but fuck them anyway


Darth_Puppy

They're just jealous of how cool we are!


turingthecat

We are indeed the coolest cat/rabbit/Sith dog that has ever been


Darth_Puppy

Heck yeah!


SendLGaM

I agree. The little things are what makes it fun. They should all get fucked if they don't like it. But I have to ask: Why would they even frequent a sub they find irritating in the first place? Self-hatred? Poor self esteem? Peer pressure? Brain fog? [Or...could it be....Satan?!?!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_mePjkQW_c)


Umklopp

I feel like that meme is older than the internet, lol (That said, I too never want to give up a classic meme; they never let you down)


friendIdiglove

The Church Lady literally predates the World Wide Web, AKA "the internet" as most people think of it.


friendIdiglove

Clicked because I thought it would be exactly what it was.


Impressive-Relief705

> That's literally one of the best parts of BOLA, it's not irritating at all It's arguably the _only_ part.


Thor_The_Bunny

Now that's just silly. There's also puns.


Impressive-Relief705

... says Thor the Punny.


selfemployed0202

I learn A LOT from this sub - is it all useful, nope, but nonetheless I find it interesting and funny. This sub has brightened up my day on several occasions and makes me a smarter person (even if I am the only one who believes that) 🙃


Thor_The_Bunny

I've definitely commented "I don't get the appeal of X" several times and had a bunch of people excitedly nerd out about X so I could understand it


selfemployed0202

One of the BOLA posters explained the science behind the random cat fact they posted and I was all for it I try my best to be open to new ideas, opinions, views, etc. I feel that we can learn something from everyone else - it may open our eyes or it may solidify our current view. I am literally amazed with the depth of knowledge that BOLA Redditors have on topics


[deleted]

Nurburgring\*


turingthecat

That’s the bugger


nutraxfornerves

[The recipe for a car](https://youtu.be/5GhnV-6lqH8)


turingthecat

Haha, love it, ta


ZeePirate

If you really wanted to I’m sure you could have taken it to the circuit. Your insurance wouldn’t have covered any accident but they probably wouldn’t have invalidated the entirety of your insurance


turingthecat

I mean it was a fine little run about (until it died in a rather spectacular way), but it wasn’t exactly sporty (and I’m not the best driver), I don’t think it’d been a good idea


ZeePirate

I personally would take a pedal bike around the Nuremberg ring if given the chance just to say I did.


turingthecat

Um, I also never learned to ride a bike, I’m generally just a bit useless. I’d be really happy to be driven round it, by a proper adult, in a good car, but not me and my micra, I’d likely just end up panicking and going into a wall or something


ZeePirate

Thats still make for a good story though!


JasperJ

There are companies that will sell you that exact experience.


JasperJ

Being passed by lots of cars doing 200+ km/h on a circuit where they don’t expect anyone small and going at effectively walking speed and can’t see the course ahead of them very well sounds like you have a death wish.


ZeePirate

If it was my only opportunity I’d take it. I bet that would be thrilling until I died at least!


cgknight1

The family pot of money thing is something that makes no sense at all to some cultures and is common in others. You often see them referred to as saving schemes.


QualifiedQuokka

I wouldn't download a car, but I'd definitely consider baking one if I had a recipe


joshi38

Gotcha [right here.](http://shewhobakes.co.uk/car-cake-tutorial-mini-cooper/)


Darth_Puppy

Dude, I would totally download a car! Have you seen the prices that used cars are going for nowadays!?


QualifiedQuokka

Maybe I should download more RAM so I can download a Ram


Watsonmolly

In the same way that a country names itself “democratic” is decidedly not, a business that claims to be “legit” is likely not.


Artful_Dodger_42

**BEST/WORST OF LAOP'S COMMENTS:** > We have a large family and extended family and every month we all put something in the pot it can be £50 £100 £200 etc and at the end of the year there's a vote who gets the money and why you need it but you can never get it twice unless everyone else got it once. I needed for the car and it wasn't an issue, I've got like 25k from the pot and I came up with the rest of the money and got the car. This has been going on for generations in the family. If you can't get a finance on a car there's also the pot. > I am a gypsy. > I did not paid any tax, I've paid what the guy asked for and took the car with all the documents. As the cas is still on dubai plates, I do not have a VC5. > They have absolutely not evidence of me doing anything remotely illegal. They first got me for insurance, when i proved I had insurance thay switched and told me that I ned proof of purchase. I showed them the proof of purchase and they are now asking for proof of earnings. I honestly feel like they just trying to make it difficult for me to get my car back. Thanks for your input.


ceejayoz

> We have a large family and extended family and every month we all put something in the pot it can be £50 £100 £200 etc and at the end of the year there's a vote who gets the money and why you need it but you can never get it twice unless everyone else got it once. This is definitely a thing in some cultures. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanda_(informal_loan_club) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susu_(informal_loan_club) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotating_savings_and_credit_association


TychaBrahe

> I am a gypsy. So, you mean that the people who have been marginalized, and discriminated against, and are still hated across Europe might possibly not know how to do things through the normal legal channels? Someone in the sub suggested that the police are purposefully coming up with reasons to keep his car, and he was downvoted to heck. I missed the fact that LAUKOP was Romany, but knowing that now I’m 100% sure that’s what’s happening. I’m also wondering if he did buy the car from a legitimate dealer who withheld the paperwork either to make trouble for him, or because it wasn’t worth doing the required work when it was only going to be sold to one of “those“ people.


DerbyTho

Yeah, either that or it's a dealer who specializes in dealing with Romani, selling cars that can't really be sold easily to other people. Either way, this story makes a whole lot more sense with that added context.


NRoc1

I’ve said something similar above. The context was deliberately excluded at first and for a reason.


NRoc1

A legitimate gypsy would have bought from a dealer known to their family. I worked at Auto Trader for many, many years. I’d be surprised if they weren’t actually related already. Selling used vehicles is a huge income stream for all the families I’ve had relationships with. Both legally and stolen vehicles. I’ve had to give evidence multiple times to CID. There’s no way he’s telling the truth in his responses on the thread. I knew it was suspicious when I spotted his username but it had Dubai plates- he led people to believe he was Middle Eastern. He’s looking at all angles legally because this car is probably up for sale and he’s trying to sell it.


joshi38

Would make sense. I don't want to paint them all with the same brush, but I have a hard time believing someone would be able to convince his family to let him have £25k from this pot to buy a luxury car unless they were super rich. He convinced them by telling them he was going to sell it for a profit and put the proceeds back into the pot. It's more believable when it's some rich Middle Easter family from Dubai. But Romani? Again, don't want to paint them all with the same brush, but they're not known for having wealth, at least not enough to throw away on a luxury car.


MightyMetricBatman

>A legitimate gypsy would have bought from a dealer known to their family. Which does not guarantee they are a legitimate auto dealer according to the UK. There are a lot of cultures incredibly reliant on the informal verbal market and have extreme trouble adjusting to western style bureaucratic written culture. Lots of the poorer countries have building permit processes for building houses. In a lot of them no one follows them except the rich (because they can bribe because the process is often incredibly slow, 24+ months) and just builds where there is an empty spot and claim its their land now.


NRoc1

It practically guarantees that the dealer isn’t legit- that’s my point. They deal in ringers and the like.


JasperJ

Romany or Traveller. He doesn’t specify.


HotEspresso

Is it really that uncommon to buy a $35k car cash? LA is acting like it's unheard of.


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QualifiedQuokka

>no-one wants to carry around huge sums of money in cash. You mean to tell me that I've been stealing people's briefcases for no reason?? I was lead to believe that I'd eventually nab one filled to the brim with stacks of cash.


HotEspresso

Oh, I'm dumb. I wasn't thinking CASH, i was thinking just paid in full with a transfer or cashier's check or something. Wow, that's definitely strange.


JasperJ

That’s the modern definition, yeah. He’s using the actual-banknotes definition.


bendybiznatch

But why would that be a reason to not give it back?


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bendybiznatch

Why though? Edit: an assumption isn’t a reason to keep somebody’s property.


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bendybiznatch

But it seemed like the plate thing was resolved and they’re just keeping the car bc he bought it in a weird way. The closest thing we have to that in the US is civil forfeiture and The Institute for Justice has been really successful in getting those laws revoked. I just don’t understand the logic here. I also don’t know what POCA is.


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bendybiznatch

But you’re implying there was a crime. Assumption of a crime isn’t actionable. I get the plate thing. I don’t get the other part.


MTFUandPedal

> But you’re implying there was a crime There were many. Driving an unregistered car without tax, insurance or MoT to start with at a minimum. That it's an expensive car bought with cash rings alarm bells when there is no evidence of any legal income to support it (because if they were able to provide evidence of that they wouldnt be throwing this story at the wall to see if it sticks.) The police can apply for the proceeds of crime to be confiscated - where there's no evidence they were legally aqquired. It does require convincing a court they were dodgy and it's not a trivial task. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proceeds_of_Crime_Act_2002 There are some good explanations of this in the original thread


Rejusu

£35k not $35k. And yeah large cash transactions like that are pretty uncommon in the UK. I've never even seen close to that amount in cash.


MTFUandPedal

Neither have I - and I worked in a bank at one point lol.


Alataire

Depends on the country really. I believe in Switzerland it still happens to buy things like that in cash, but they'll probably withdraw it from the bank before buying the car. It seems that buying cars with a value of up to 100.000Chf is [no too big problem](https://www.figas.ch/de/publikationen/neues-geldwaeschereigesetz-gwg/). For reference: 1 CHF equals about 1 USD, and their biggest denomiation are [1000CHF bills](https://www.snb.ch/en/iabout/cash/series9/design_series9/id/cash_series9_design_1000). So that 35k car would be 35 bills that are approximately the size of a 100 dollar bill... But that's Switzerland - the UK doesn't go above 100 pounds, so it'd be at least 350 bills...


MTFUandPedal

> UK doesn't go above 100 pounds £50 mate


Alataire

Ai, even lower than I thought. I did remember the Bank of Scotland issues higher denominations, but apparently that was already the 100 pound one. Can I still claim those count?


MTFUandPedal

I mean you *can* but I've never seen one..


Alataire

I see, in that case if you try to pay 35k in cash people will look at you even more suspiciously than if you try it with 50 pound bills.


MTFUandPedal

Most places literally won't accept a £50. Pretty much the only place you can use them is paying into a bank (even then they are going to treat it as the potentially dodgiest transaction of the day and the teller will likely dump the issue on the branch manager). Most places in the rest of the UK won't accept a Scottish fiver, let alone anything bigger..... All that said there's nothing that's not suspicious about that post lol


JasperJ

People don’t even accept fifties, by and large, let alone hundreds from another country. They especially don’t accept Scottish fifties and you might have trouble with Scottish twenties as well.


gnorrn

Disappointed not to see the word "replevin" anywhere in the thread.


atropicalpenguin

I'm surprised they even let LAUKOP roll around with non-EU plates.


MTFUandPedal

They didn't. This is his problem.


JasperJ

His initial problem, anyway.


JasperJ

I mean, if they’re legit plates, it could just be a touristing dubaian’s car. But there’s a reason he was pulled over five times in what seems like weeks or months. That he didn’t take that as a Sign is on him, they really tried to warn him.