Car movement data -- is it registered/stored somewhere?

[Pink72]

The Skoda connect portal intimates certain data tags are collected and sent to google analytics. Not particularly clear on what data is used but potentially location tracking could be there. Equally the on-board sim and if installed infotainment sim may well have cell location stored with the mobile companies. Skoda connect may also track location into the Skoda servers. Columbus satnav May store historic location info on the hard disk. Lastly if you have mobiles, and as stated below, if you are in android or have google maps installed and signed into with you account it should record your location timeline. Some of these may be difficult to source yourself but certainly worth proffering up for the police to investigate.

[FoxtrotAlpha]

The Skoda connect portal intimates certain data tags are collected and sent to google analytics. Not particularly clear on what data is used but potentially location tracking could be there. Equally the on-board sim and if installed infotainment sim may well have cell location stored with the mobile companies. Skoda connect may also track location into the Skoda servers. Columbus satnav May store historic location info on the hard disk. Lastly if you have mobiles, and as stated below, if you are in android or have google maps installed and signed into with you account it should record your location timeline. Some of these may be difficult to source yourself but certainly worth proffering up for the police to investigate.

Not sure phone location data would be acceptable as they could claim that there is no evidence to say the phone and the car were together and at the same place during the incident.

[Pink72]

True FoxtrotAlpha. Agree you really need car tracking data.

[iwarv]

If your car was cloned, then it's almost certain that the actual car at the scene of the incident is a Skoda Kodiaq of the same colour.
If you think about it, why clone the plates of a VW Tiguan or even a Kodiaq with a completely different colour?

Most likely - as suggested - this is a witness misremembering or a police officer mistyping the car's registration number. And you will probably find that the make and colour of your car doesn't even match the description of the suspect's vehicle.

I would follow up the NIP with a phone call and make enquiries about the description of the vehicle.
As you said, you don't want this hanging over you over the Christmas holidays. A phone call may speed things up.

[Kenny R]

The Skoda Connect app can show you miles traveled, time of journey, mpg and distance travelled for any day since you got the car, under driving data, ( with since start consumption ticked on mine)

[alexander_5]

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for being absent for a while -- as I see I should work hard to keep up with the developments here...

Thanks for all the advices and thoughts, we obviously consider and exhaust all of them. I think I will reply to some of them separately.

What we have done on our side in the meantime:

-- We have contacted the investigation unit and so can confirm that the NIP is genuine. We were asked to write our statement on the form and send it back; it was posted on Friday and will be delivered tomorrow.
-- An inquiry was sent to Skoda HQ to clarify if they (or the car itself) store anything regarding the movements. I have received a quick reply saying that there is no such data stored.

Thanks again, I will keep you updated.

[alexander_5]

Something about this just doesn’t ring true.

On the NIP’s it must state the date , time and location of the offence as well as the nature of the offence, in this case it would be either dangerous driving, careless driving or leaving the scene of an accident (or a combination of these three). The NIPs doesn’t mean you will go to court either, it’s the first step in finding out who was driving and further investigation should be made by the Police.

As mentioned the onus is on the Police to provide the evidence to you were at fault, if you were not there then they will be hard pressed to do that, the nature of their ‘evidence’ would need to be strong enough to prove without reasonable doubt that you were guilty before the CPS will prosecute. It must be said that dash cam evidence isn’t always acceptable as evidence either. That said I know if you can prove you were not there it would be helpful not only for your own wellbeing but also to the Police.

If this proceeds any further then I would suggest you get Specialist Legal Advice ( Not Citizens Advice as they are pretty hopeless) and if possible talk to the Police directly. The Police are usually very approachable is such cases and are only working on information supplied which maybe flawed (could have been given wrong registration number).

Easy to say but don’t worry about it until it goes further.

Thanks -- The NIP looks almost exactly as you described, and unfortunately proved to be genuine...

As it cannot be ruled out that we will have a need for a specialist lawyer we have started with a research to find a proper one.

[alexander_5]

The Skoda connect portal intimates certain data tags are collected and sent to google analytics. Not particularly clear on what data is used but potentially location tracking could be there. Equally the on-board sim and if installed infotainment sim may well have cell location stored with the mobile companies. Skoda connect may also track location into the Skoda servers. Columbus satnav May store historic location info on the hard disk. Lastly if you have mobiles, and as stated below, if you are in android or have google maps installed and signed into with you account it should record your location timeline. Some of these may be difficult to source yourself but certainly worth proffering up for the police to investigate.

The eCall unit came to my mind on Friday in the morning and asked Skoda if we can have the number of the embedded SIM card and/or the IMEI number itself.
I am waiting for their reply but even though these are accessible to the owner they do not help: based on the eCall protocol the unit gets connected with the mobile networks only in case of a serious accident (involving airbag activation) or once the red call button pressed -- meaning that under normal circumstances no location information can be derived. Thus, this will not produce any evidence.
Actually my assumption was the same as yours; this is what I have found out after an hour of research.

Thank you anyway.

[FoxtrotAlpha]

The Skoda connect portal intimates certain data tags are collected and sent to google analytics. Not particularly clear on what data is used but potentially location tracking could be there. Equally the on-board sim and if installed infotainment sim may well have cell location stored with the mobile companies. Skoda connect may also track location into the Skoda servers. Columbus satnav May store historic location info on the hard disk. Lastly if you have mobiles, and as stated below, if you are in android or have google maps installed and signed into with you account it should record your location timeline. Some of these may be difficult to source yourself but certainly worth proffering up for the police to investigate.

The eCall unit came to my mind on Friday in the morning and asked Skoda if we can have the number of the embedded SIM card and/or the IMEI number itself.
I am waiting for their reply but even though these are accessible to the owner they do not help: based on the eCall protocol the unit gets connected with the mobile networks only in case of a serious accident (involving airbag activation) or once the red call button pressed -- meaning that under normal circumstances no location information can be derived. Thus, this will not produce any evidence.
Actually my assumption was the same as yours; this is what I have found out after an hour of research.

Thank you anyway.

Please do, I’m intrigued to see how the law works. Hope it all works out OK for you in this case.

[Kenny R]

If the Skoda app can locate your car from anywhere in the world,( with almost pinpoint accuracy btw), and holds data for any day as to distance travelled etc, there must be some way Skoda can provide you with data for the day in question.