MAN UNWITTINGLY BUYS BACK HIS OWN $20K STOLEN CAR!

A MIDLAND man unwittingly bought back his own stolen car without even realising it.

- ISABELLE BATES

Ewan Valentine says he was devastated when his Honda Civic R was stolen two months ago.

The nine-year-old motor - which can do 0-to-60mph in six seconds and has a top speed of 168mph - was his pride and joy.

Keen to replace it, the 36-year-old searched for a similar car and eventually came across one he thought was just like it.

But it wasn’t until he'd shelled out over £20,000 that he realised it actually was his old car that he’d bought back.

Ewan, from Solihull, said: “In February, my partner woke up around 5am to drive to the office and asked where my car was.

“Slightly dazed, I looked out of the window and sure enough, the car was gone.

“A few weeks passed, and I was dealing with the police and the insurance company, but not much was happening.

“So I decided to start looking to replace the car.

“It was a bit of a midlife crisis car, and you don’t get many of those.

“So I was looking for a more or less identical car and the one that caught my eye was identical, colour, make, model, even down to the custom exhaust system.

“So it seemed perfect.”

The ‘new’ Honda had a different reg plate on it.