ABSTRACT
If the protected goods have been abandoned by the debtor, the creditor may recover them without a court order: Bentinck v Cromwell Engineering (1971), in which the debtor was involved in a collision in which a car he had taken on hire-purchase was seriously damaged. He left it at a garage for repair and disappeared, having given a false telephone number to the finance company which owned the car. Nine months later, the finance company traced the car to the garage where it had been left and repossessed it. The Court of Appeal held, applying provisions which were similar to those in place under the Consumer Credit Act, that the car had been abandoned by the debtor and that, therefore, the creditor had not recovered possession from the debtor. However, this will not always be the case. Unless it is clear that the debtor intended to abandon the property, the court may hold that a bailee who is in possession of protected goods for the purpose of repairing them, is in possession as agent of the debtor. Any repossession from the garage will, therefore, be a repossession from the debtor.
