Before everyone gets too high on their horses. I would remind that this is quite a specialised area with lots of legal pitfalls and sidetracks on proving ownership, especially when the property is contracted for care in the hands of third parties, or certain conditions exist that may be written or implied to an extent they can have an impact.
I was fortunate to learn a lot of those pitfalls and ways around them, through my then Boss Detective Sergeant Colin Hammond who spent years in the Victoria Police Stolen Motor Vehicle Squad investigating many complicated transactions that often spent years in Civil Litigation to recover property to their rightful owners.
There are many processes to go through before rights are established sufficient to seize or even detain property. He bought a lot of that experience and expertise to the CIB Dealers Squad where I worked for quite a number of years and that also helped in sorting out many ownership issues for high value jewellery and equipment seized by police.
At least most of those items were quite small by comparison, but of high value. Sometimes you wished you hadn't seized or taken into possession some property as in some instances it had to remain in our custody and care for many years while courts both criminal and civil made rulings on restoration and in some cases an order might also specify damages.
Then there are cases where theft (an essential element in some return of property orders cannot be established) due to civil elements/transactions/promises intervene, and those that dealt with property can also resort to civil litigation to try and reinforce their own claims as well.
So quite a legal minefield, and not one for any to travel unless you have unlimited monies to expend. So just some caution unless your are prepared or motivated to underwrite Vivid's already high cost incurred in this event. Hopefully these later developments will help him in the resolution and restoration of that property to his care. Certainly helpful if anyone has information or knows where individual cars are now located and the chain of custody etc. back to the original transactor.
Ken
I was fortunate to learn a lot of those pitfalls and ways around them, through my then Boss Detective Sergeant Colin Hammond who spent years in the Victoria Police Stolen Motor Vehicle Squad investigating many complicated transactions that often spent years in Civil Litigation to recover property to their rightful owners.
There are many processes to go through before rights are established sufficient to seize or even detain property. He bought a lot of that experience and expertise to the CIB Dealers Squad where I worked for quite a number of years and that also helped in sorting out many ownership issues for high value jewellery and equipment seized by police.
At least most of those items were quite small by comparison, but of high value. Sometimes you wished you hadn't seized or taken into possession some property as in some instances it had to remain in our custody and care for many years while courts both criminal and civil made rulings on restoration and in some cases an order might also specify damages.
Then there are cases where theft (an essential element in some return of property orders cannot be established) due to civil elements/transactions/promises intervene, and those that dealt with property can also resort to civil litigation to try and reinforce their own claims as well.
So quite a legal minefield, and not one for any to travel unless you have unlimited monies to expend. So just some caution unless your are prepared or motivated to underwrite Vivid's already high cost incurred in this event. Hopefully these later developments will help him in the resolution and restoration of that property to his care. Certainly helpful if anyone has information or knows where individual cars are now located and the chain of custody etc. back to the original transactor.
Ken
