A shocked motorist whose beloved car was stolen unwittingly bought it back a few weeks later.
Ewan Valentine wanted to replace his black Honda Civic R after it was pinched two months ago.
The nine-year-old motor – which can do 0-to-60mph in six seconds and has a top speed of 168mph – was his pride and joy.
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So Ewan, 36, searched for a similar car and eventually came across one he thought was just like it.
But it wasn’t until he’d shelled out over £20,000 that he realised it actually was his old car that he’d bought back.
“In February my partner woke up around 5am to drive to her office, shouted ‘Ewan, where’s your car’.
“Slightly dazed, I looked out of the window and sure enough, the car was gone,” the software engineer from Solihull, West Mids, told Need To Know.
“A few weeks passed, I was dealing with the police and the insurance company but not much was happening.
“So I decided to start looking to replace the car
“It was a bit of a midlife crisis car and you don’t get many of those.
“So I was looking for a more or less identical car and the one that caught my eye was identical, colour, make, model, even down to the custom exhaust system.
“So it seemed perfect.”
The ‘new’ Honda had a different reg plate on it.
Ewan added: “I went down to the garage to check it over.
“But I think my judgement was a little clouded by how desperate I was to replace my car, so I didn’t do the most thorough check.
“I drove it all the way back to Solihull to buy a steering wheel lock.
“But when I went to put a few things in the boot I noticed a tent peg and some Christmas tree pines in there.
“I’d also shattered a bottle of beer about a year before and could never quite get rid of the smell.
“So I could smell beer and I also noticed some wrappers in the central column that were mine.
“I started driving home, feeling a little strange about the whole situation because it could all have been a coincidence still.
“So I suddenly had the idea of checking the satnav history.
“Sure enough there was my address, my parents’ address, my partner’s address and places we’d visited the previous couple of years.
“It then dawned on me that my phone connected instantly as I left the garage, rather than needing to pair it as a new device.
“So it was pretty clear at this point that it was my car.
“I contacted the police immediately and started checking the car for vin numbers.
“The Vehicle Identification Number didn’t match my original car, but there were indications that things had been tampered with.
“For example, a chrome embossed VIN number was missing from the engine bay.
“The VIN number on the door frame was a sticker, where you could previously see something was bolted.
“The engine serial number had been painted over.
“I also started to notice scratches and marks that were the same.
“A few days later the police managed to talk the local garage into looking at the car immediately, they obliged and I met the police officer there.
“The first thing one of the technicians said was ‘Do you have the original key’ so I handed it over to him.
“I’d completely forgotten about the physical key tucked away inside the key fob. I pulled it out, placed it in the lock and it immediately opened.
“It was my car.
“They did further checks plugging a laptop into the car and managed to find the original VIN number.
“So they’d attempted to override the VIN number in the ECU, even though that was tricky to find.
“Which indicates how sophisticated these criminals were. Honda also found a gearbox serial number, which matched my original car in their records.
“So this was the definitive proof the police needed.
“Nonetheless, the car spent nearly three weeks waiting for forensic examination, where it still is today.
“The police are now handing the car over to my insurance company, who will either get it road legal again and in a position that it can be insured on my original policy again.
“Or pay out for the car if that costs more than the car.
“It’s more likely they’ll un-clone it and give it back to me ultimately.
“There was a whole series of oddities we noticed whilst at the garage.
“The car came with invoices from the garage, with the names of staff.
“The Honda technicians pointed out no one with those names had ever worked there, and the phone number was wrong on the invoice.
“They also spotted another invoice that was from a Honda specialist in the area.
“That same place had issued a statement a few days before, warning people that they’d come across a few fake invoices in their name.”
Ewan believes the garage he bought the car from was also fooled by the thieves.
“I really don’t think they knew, down to how good a job the clone was,” he added.
“They were duped as well and they’re a really good garage.”
West Midlands Police has been approached for comment.
