UK Police Pull Over Person For Not Making Car Payments

Yes, this is real…

Of course making your car payments on time is the responsible, adult thing to do, but last time we checked skipping some or getting behind wasn’t a criminal offense. However, the Worcestershire Operations Patrol Unit Twitter account recently posted about an officer pulling over a “stolen” car for what sounds like that very reason.

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The tweet reads: “We sighted this #stolen vehicle on the M5 heading towards the M6. We stopped it with assistance from @CMPG. The vehicle was subject to numerous outstanding finance payments, with the keeper ignoring repeated contact from the finance company.”

To us, it sounds like the police are calling the car stolen because the person got behind on payments. At least here in the US that would be considered a civil matter, not something criminal and certainly not vehicle theft. But we have no idea if the laws in the UK have changed to classify it as such. If so, that’s a little interesting.

Throwing people who stop making payments and don’t take phone calls from their car loan lender in the same category as someone who breaks into and hotwires others’ vehicles is a pretty bold move. Sure, some consider not paying on a car the bank owns while continuing to drive it theft in a moral sense, but for a lender to contact the police who then use their resources to at least pull the person over and call the car stolen is a whole different level.

We can’t find any news reports which detail out what happened to the driver and the car, which is also concerning. Was the car impounded and the driver arrested for theft? We don’t know, but the language of the tweet sure hints that’s possible.