Gents,
I think the OP's mate has insurance, the vehicle was not seized for no insurance. It was recovered as it was a stolen vehicle. Once found, generally a stolen car gets recovered for forensics. The costs of this recovery and subsequent storage are then payable to the recovery operator. Most folks just leave the payments down to their insurance company to sort. However, in this case the owner does not want the insurance company involved, so has to pay the costs himself. At least, that's my interpretation of the post.