Clare

The British press will stop at nothing to cause panic and distress at the expense of others if it puts their ratings & sales up

For those who have seen the Daily Mirror today regarding the sale of some Police Riot vans you will know what im talking about.

Aside from the mistake of getting our Company name wrong, they've caused a big fuss over nothing trying to make it look like any tom, dick or Abdullah can now impersonate the Met Police

I worked fooking long and hard hours selling those damn vans.............. I mean who other than the Police wants to buy 33 x P reg Police Vans??????

Anonymous

have you got one in Pink? with multi coloured lights?

Shings

Any chance of one with a cage in the back?????

Clare

Jake, they are fully spec'd up Riot vans, including 2 cages for prisoners

Anonymous

im sure i saw one when i was in Mercs Edware Road workshop maybe it was the fashion police

Rich_w

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstor...name_page.html

Well, Im assuming you removed all the stickers, lights etc? Where Ive worked in the past we had the contract to look after a few marked and unmarked cars. All the lights had to be covered and the "POLICE" logos had to be covered.

Who bought them btw?

Clare

The logos need to be covered when they are being driven / moved location, they do not need to be removed. Once sold it is the responsibility of the person who buys them to abide by these rules.

A trader

Soooooooooooo many inaccuracies in their report it actually made me laugh. When my General Manager first told me about it a shiver went down my spine incase I had fooked up on something, but when I read the article it is clear to me they are scare mongering, unfortunatly Joe Public probably wont see that.

Iain Mac

I was once told that it is illegal to sell on an armoured van in case bad guys buy it and then can't be stopped by the good guys>

Story went that they were drained of fluids and sunk to form a reef.

Any truth in that?

Rich_w

Well to be honest you've (well Mercedes MK) have made a rod for their own back. Why not get a handful of students in for minimum wage to remove that stuff? Then the tabloids wouldnt have had a thing to complain about. I understand you dont have to do it. But surely someone must have considered it? And the negative publicity Mercedes will get now is probably a worse thing.

Clare

Not really Rich, we didnt get a mention once in the article

We havn't even been contacted by the press, thats how interested they were in printing an 'exclusive' story

James

Well what more do you expect from the Mirror?

I don't buy it but know someone who does and i have a read of that as & when and most of the stories are pure bollocks basec to speculation.

Rich_w

Yeah, but, yeah, but, all those idiots that read the Mirror will now go and buy a Transit rather than a Sprinter. Merc Vans will now forever be known as Terrorist vehicles

Actually thats just a better idea. Everyone knows Sprinters are cack compared to the Ford

DazC

iTrader: (1)

Stop winding up the resident Mercedes commercial vehicle sales woman!

Puss2

iTrader: (5)

but its in the paper so it must be true

Keith B

There ought to be some kind means to stop the trashy tabloids printing sensationalist crap. At the end of the day the less bright end of society end up believing it and acting on crap like that - and all to line someones pockets. If they print stuff thats deemed to be BS then they deserve a MASSIVE fine not the usual slap on the wrist. The UK should educate its people not turn them into paranoid freaks or misread morons. Grrrrrrrrr - tabloid scum bags.

philc

no one! I guess hey went to auction or you did a trade with a large(ish) dealer? surely they would of been stripped of all insignia?

Clare

Nope, I sold them to a sole trader who buys odd stuff like this from me all the time. He then put them through auction.

As the article states, no one has broken any laws or done anything wrong. Although the girls have just had a heated debate in the office about whether I should have ensured they were stripped of livery before selling them The Managers are happy with how I sold them so thats all that matters.

GARETH T

you can buy and run a TANk on uk roads,,, so i dont think a van is a problem

joel_winders

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...565024194&rd=1

saff police car anyone ? lol

RichardPON

I hope you stood your ground!

Always so annoying when people think they know best what should have been done............

Shame they didn't mention you by name in the paper though

dickymint

Clare I was parked next to most of them at Gleneagles, and some were proper fooked, you see ex police vans all over the place Rob Jones the RSOC Solicitor has one most peeps buy them cos they are serviced well, with not to many miles.

As for the paper work yeh I`ve got loads of it as well, the event was a one off, once its done none of its relevant anymore.

The papers do amaze you sometimes, aresholes.

Dickymint

joel_winders

as far as i was aware ex police cars were all over the show, my uncle had an ex saff cossie about 4 years ago and under ultra violete lights you could see a big dirty police sign on the bonnet lol , he had to rip the old dash out aswell and put a new one in when he got it.

SimonT

I never read the news papers.

Unfortunatly everything gets twisted etc...

Gra

I am unclear about summit, isnt the mirror correct tho in saying that the vans were fully marked up at auction available to joe public for 4k? granted they have gone to extremes but dont hey have a valid point? someone bought 39 police roit vans and put them thru auction avialble for anyone and pretty much left em as they were when the pigs used em, or have i missed summit?

Kam B

well the british media/press are one sided anyway u cant expect decent fair articles from them scumbags

MWF

Seems like a valid thing to question but surely buying an old riot van makes it very easy to be traced plus surely it isn't hard to convert a normal van to look like a police van anyway?

Clare

Gra, yes that is correct, but this has been done for years no questions asked. No one has broken any laws or done anything wrong.

Rich, of course I did

Dicky, did you see them at the ('secure' *cough cough*) storage ground, the one that got broken into and had 2 brand new Shoguns pinched from, but they didnt notice for 7 days ?

MWF - My opinion exactly!!!!!! How hard is it to stick a nipple on top of a van and put some livery on the side. You can buy a Police uniform in the shops, you can buy ex-army (bullet proof) vehicles at auction.

Its kicked off in here big time now, cant go into details but now the Police realise they have fooked up they are throwing their weight around and IMO making totally unreasonable demands Feel so bad for the Trader I sold them to, he's a really nice guy and has a lot of money tied up in these vans

Gra

Im not saying anyones at fault but i think that someone somewhere in the chain should be responsible for getting the markings, lights radio etc off before they are offered to the public, although thinking about it, damm if i bought one i reackon i could half my journey time easy any left?

Clare

lol @ Gra, well he only sold 2 of the 33 before the press got involved so yes!

Well, for those who are interested, we are now paying to remove the livery and sirens to keep the peace

MWF

I think the Mirror are just crying wolf about something that just isn't a problem. Like Clare has said there's plenty of ways terrorists could get hold of armoured cars or make their own fake official vehicals. If it was an issue then I'm confident the police would have addressed it a long time ago.

And think about it, if some terrosts were mincing around London in a de-commissioned police riot van they'd stick out like a sore thumb.

dickymint

Lol, Clare that was probably the Met, if its not nailed down they`ll av it away.

We had a water fight with 4 of their units onto our 1 on the last day and lost big time.

Dickymint.

Gra

why would a terroist want an fully marked up van tho, not exactly inconspicuous (spelling) is it oh yeah that would blend right in that would, 4 islamic terorists in a riot van in fancy dress copper uniforms complete with plastic trunchon