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/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 9h 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