CRIS. Not interested in possible caravan theft?
CRIS. Are they interested in preventing caravan theft?
A couple of weeks ago we had our suspicions aroused about a caravan on a CL where we staying. A Sprite Alpine 4. A few things didn’t seem right. It was unattended for all of our stay. It was connected to a large orange gas tank. Some lights were left on day and night. There was a push chair outside it, left in the rain. There was no car number plate. The CRIS label had been removed from the window, although we could still make out the number etched into the other windows. We decided to ring CRIS to see if it was recorded as stolen. They were not interested in our story and would not check their data base unless we paid them a fee. CRIS seem happy to take our money, but are not interested in locating possible stolen caravans. Was it robbery? Is it robbery? In the end we rang the Police and left the details with them.
Comments
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Didn't you have a word with the site owner before phoning the police.?Surely they would have known something about a caravan left on their site.
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CRIS are a caravan registration company and not a legal body in any shape or form. They are a profit making company.
They could be in breach of data protection laws by giving you even the most basic of information.
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Hi Nellie,
I'm afraid the response from the site owner made us even more suspicious.
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The Act would not be breached by advising if the caravan was stolen, although they could not give anything more. If warned and it was stolen they could inform the police or the owner, but it does not look like this was the case. Alternately if you told the police they would probably contact CRIS to check and it may be any enquiry came up clear.
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The CL owner would have been reluctant to pass on any details in case they breached the Data protection Act and secondly there is the possibility they did not want to say anything about the caravan as maybe it had been on the site for more than 28 days?
I must admit that we would not have bothered snooping as we would have assumed CL owner was legit. Also CRIS could have ended up in very hot water if they gave out any info. Police have probably filed the report in the nearest waste bin. It happens as they do not have the resources to investigate!
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The CL owner was a very nice person and I’m sure they were doing nothing illegal.Farmers are sometimes fearful of reprisals.Caravan theft is a scourge that we all pay for through our insurance premiums.Sometimes things don’t seem right. If CRIS could have checked on their data base it would have saved us possibly wasting Police time.We’ve had one caravan destroyed by an attempted theft and it would be good if all members were just a little vigilant when things look suspicious.
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We are encouraged as a nation to report anything unusual. So well done Tony - you did what you could and then referred to the Police. CRIS's response does not surprise me but it was worth trying. I expect they will be co-operative if approached by the Police.
Five years ago I I worked for an organisation that had one of the biggest databases in Europe [it wasn't one of the social media firms]. Our licensing and terms & conditions allowed us to sell customer data but not give it away for free unless required by law; we always gave the information to the Police for free.
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"They could be in breach of data protection laws by giving you even the most basic of information.".
"Also CRIS could have ended up in very hot water if they gave out any info".
I struggle to see that it is somehow held to be in breach of data laws to give the info for free, whereas anybody can get it for the check fee?
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We recently suffered a theft loss costing our insurers £5000. Would you believe the police only gave me a crime number and an email about claiming some victim counselling? That was absolutely all we had from the police, so don't expect much action, no visit though told we could be getting somebody contact us in about a week, no, nor any follow up of any sort.
We needed counselling more from the realisation of what little help the police are now than we did overcoming the theft itself.
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I am afraid the police will have looked at the theft and decided there was very little chance of catching the culprits so just logged it. The police are simply under intolerable pressure and that is the result. It is very wrong but understandable.
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