A friend of mine did it, the DVLA will provide the details of the previous owner and you can try and contact them yourself if you wish. A friend of mine noticed a Cav SR16v left for ages not far from him and went through the process, found out it was still registered to a garage owner and went for a chat. The garage owner said no problem and he'd be expecting the letter. My mate then effectively stole it since there were no keys and stripped it for parts.