A COUNCIL has apologised after mistakenly towing away a parked car and returning it months later with damaged bodywork.

Ben Tiller of Colburn said he thought his Subaru Legacy car had been stolen when it disappeared from where it had been parked on private land at Gallowfields Trading Estate in Richmond.

Mr Tiller, 32, had bought the car to fix up and sell on and reported it stolen when the vehicle went missing in March.

Two months passed before Mr Tiller heard back from North Yorkshire Police who told him that the car had been towed away by Richmondshire District Council who mistakenly believed it had been abandoned.

An angry Mr Tiller said when he contacted the council he was initially told the car had been scrapped.

After further enquires, it transpired that the car was still intact and it was finally returned to Mr Tiller last week, with an additional dent in its bonnet and rear end.

Amanda Dyson, waste and street scene manager at Richmondshire Council, said the car’s removal had been a “genuine mistake” but Mr Tiller questioned how a car parked on private land could be towed away without warning.

He added that because the council had already reported the car as having been crushed to the DVLA, it was now worthless and he had intended to sell it on for between £2,000 and £3,000.

He said: “It has made my life a bit harder to be honest.

“Apparently once a car has been registered as scrapped then there’s nothing you can do about it so it’s basically lost me money that I can’t afford to lose.”

Mr Tiller said that although he was not the registered keeper of the car because he intended to sell it on, the vehicle was insured under his trading policy and was parked on private land.

He added: “It was only parked there for a week, maybe two.

“I didn’t see any notices or any warning that it was going to be towed.”

Ms Dyson said the car had been reported to the council as an abandoned vehicle and that necessary checks were undertaken before it was towed away.

She said that the council immediately informed the police that they had taken the car, but it took several weeks for that information to reach Mr Tiller.

Ms Dyson said that the car was already “quite severely damaged” when the council towed it away but added that they had apologised to Mr Tiller for the additional damage.

Commenting on why the car was towed in the first place, she said: “It was a genuine mistake and we have apologised for it and we are trying to remedy it.

“Unfortunately there was a bit of ambiguity about the area of land in question.”

Ms Dyson said that the matter was now with the council’s insurers to resolve with Mr Tiller.