Towies threatened by owners who don’t want to pay recovery fees

‘I’m experiencing financial loss first hand and it’s not even my car that got stolen’: Fair Trading laws mean towie’s stuck with vehicles that owners don’t want to pay to recover.

You would think a tow truck driver has everything to gain from the recent spate of stolen car recoveries, but Michael Adams is “sick and frickin’ tired” of how vehicle thefts impact the whole community.

He has started the Facebook group CQ Car Owners Against Car Thieft to create awareness about the Youth Justice Act and lobby politicians to change the legislation.

“People think the Thieft is a spelling mistake but I put it in there to get people talking, stir them up a bit,” he said.

“What really got me going was Lauga in the Morning Bulletin telling the public that youth crime has decreased; everyone I know knows that’s BS.”

Mr Adams said he had finally secured a meeting with the State Members for Keppel and Rockhampton and he wanted some other community members to back him up.

“Yeah, the situation is Townsville is ratsh--, same in Cairns, but there’s no reason Rockhampton can’t be the starting point for some serious change,” he said.

‘We’ve got to prise the Justice Minister out of her south-east bubble and come speak to the people this is happening to instead of sitting in Parliament.”

Mr Adams is not proposing vigilante behaviour; he’s used to following the protocols when it comes to reporting youth crime.

“I used to have the Pizza Hut in South Rocky and I ended up having to spend about $3,500 a week to provide my staff with a security detail from five o’clock until knock off time,” he said.

“One night there was about 30 kids throwing rocks at cars and customers in the car park because I reported them for stealing soft drinks out of my fridge.

“Whatever it takes, we’ve got to change the Youth Justice Act to create some kind of deterrent, some programs that actually work.”

It’s hard enough for tow truck drivers to work three or four hours in the middle of the nights to shift a stolen car that’s been abandoned upside down in a culvert, Mr Adams said.

In an ironic twist, the Fair Trading laws mean he’s stuck with vehicles that owners don’t want to pay to recover.

“I had some bloke threaten me with a bottle in front of his little kids because he didn’t want to pay my fees,” he said.

“And his girlfriend started abusing me because she reckons I took something out of the glovebox she was looking for.”

Mr Adams has had cars in his holding yard for more than 18 months as he negotiates the Fair Trading red tape.

“You can’t sell a vehicle for profit for three months and then you’ve got to have written permission from the owners, then you’ve got to email that to the superintendent of traffic and publish an ad in a national paper, pay the auction fees,” he said.

“I’m experiencing financial loss first hand and it’s not even my car that got stolen.”

Mr Adams said repealing the Youth Justice Act and its lenient bail arrangements for repeat offenders was a first step.

“There are lots of good people in the community, sports teams and business owners, who can get together in some kind of forum and talk about how to tackle youth crime,” he said.

“But we need a lot of us to stand together because, when it comes to crime statistics, the politicians have buried their heads in the sand and they don’t want to listen.”