Burry Port dad wins caravan claim after 4-year battle - and now has new sports car

A BURRY Port dad has won a four-year legal battle with insurers who failed to pay up after he wrote off his �8,000 caravan — and now has a new sports car for his troubles.

Patriotic Welshman Mihangel ap Dafydd — formerly Mike Evans Jones — of Dolau Fan, bought the ABI Yorkshire Platinum 2001 twin axle touring caravan "in good faith" in August 2006, via online shopping site eBay — little realising the vehicle had previously been stolen.

In March the following year, the caravan was involved in an accident after it detached itself from Mr Ap Dafydd's towing vehicle, while he was visiting his mum at her Swansea home, and then rolled down an embankment hitting a tree.

It had been insured with Lloyd's for �8,000 and its contents for �500, but when the 50-year-old went to claim for the damage from his insurers, the company discovered the vehicle had previously been stolen and noted a payment had already been made on the loss to its original owners.

It therefore refused to make a second payment, claiming that Mr Ap Dafydd had "not taken reasonable steps to ensure the vehicle was not stolen before purchase."

However, the dual diagnosis advocate strongly refuted this suggestion. He explained: "I bought the caravan in good faith and had taken steps to check it wasn't stolen — but unbeknown to me, the chassis number had been altered professionally by turning one digit from a six to an eight to hide its stolen identity."

Mr Ap Dafydd called in police who contacted the sellers and, following an investigation, officers agreed the sale had been legitimate and also that the sellers had themselves bought the vehicle "in good faith".

The dad said: "Despite this, Lloyd's still refused to pay out — forcing me to take the matter to the highest level — the adjudicator of the Financial Ombudsman Service."

Following the adjudicator's inquiries, in October last year, she upheld Mr Ap Dafydd's case and in a letter concluding the matter, she wrote: "In my judgment, given that accidental damage was one of the insured perils, Lloyds is at a legal obligation to indemnify the claim for the market value of the caravan, plus the insured value of the contents at the date of loss.

"After investigations, I therefore consider the fair and reasonable outcome of this case to be for the firm to make the payment in full."

Now Mr Ap Dafydd, who hit the headlines last year when he changed his name by deed poll to its Welsh version, is delighted to have received a cheque for �9,200 from his insurers. He celebrated the victory by buying a new MG TF sports car, adding: "I hadn't done anything wrong and this proves there's justice in the world."

A spokeswoman for Lloyd's said the company accepted the verdict of the Financial Ombudsman Service and declined to comment further.

Source: http://rss.feedsportal.com/c/32715/f/503366/s/11ccef90/l/0L0Sthisissouthwales0O0Cnews0CDad0Es0Ecaravan0Eclaim0Esettled0Elong0Erow0Carticle0E31144910Edetail0Carticle0Bhtml/story01.htm

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