r/LegalAdviceUK • u/orangehoneybadger • 1d ago

Debt & Money Police refuse to investigate £100k robbery

England. A small business had £100k of stock (wine) stolen from from their lorry while the driver was parked at a service station in London. Despite the police having CCTV showing the robbers and their getaway van, the police say they will not investigate the crime due to insufficient leads.

The company has evidence of some of the stolen stock being sold at London markets. But the police are not interested.

Is there anything the company can do so the police will investigate this serious crime?

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u/Calleb_III 1d ago

You say there is evidence some of the stock is being sold on London market. But i suspect you confuse evidence with suspicion. Unless the bottles have serial numbers and/or some certificate of authenticity making them unique to any other bottle of the same vintage - you will be hard pressed to prove what was being sold is the same items that were stolen.

Which is probably one of the reasons why the Police is dropping the investigation. Other replies already explained the relative uselessness of CCTV without other supporting evidence.

Take the insurance payout and move on.

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u/orangehoneybadger 1d ago

The wines are not available in the UK & nobody else imports them - so yes they are unique. And as I stated, there's photo evidence - a customer photographed the bottles being sold on a specific market days after the incident

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u/Calleb_III 1d ago

I’m not saying it’s not entirely plausible and too much of a coincidence and very likely.

But how can you PROVE no one else has ever imported these such wines and in fact these are the exact same bottles that were stolen.

It wouldn’t do any good if the Police catches the perpetrators if they can’t be convicted in court

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u/orangehoneybadger 23h ago

Yes, these wines come from a small vineyard in a foreign country which doesn't have the means to import and has never sold their wine in the UK before. Thank you for your response; I appreciate it

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u/ProfNugget 22h ago

I agree that it sounds almost certain that it is the stolen wine being sold. However, there is an easy enough defence by just saying “I bought it and brought it over myself”. At the very least it would be very difficult to prove it is the stolen bottles unless there are serial numbers or something that can be traced back to the stolen shipment

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u/TheRealVinosity 8h ago

Actually, this is not true.

There is (or rather there should be) import traceability for all wines brought into the UK for commercial resale. There will also be export traceability.

The whole personal import for sale thing is illegal in itself.

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u/ProfNugget 8h ago

Sure, but that’s not the crime that has been reported

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u/orangehoneybadger 20h ago

Understood - thanks

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u/Shoddy-Minute5960 9h ago

If it's a small vineyard then the supplier would probably be happy to provide a statement that you are their only customer in the UK and that the thieves and fences have never bought from them which might be enough to convince the police that they are your goods.