Trainee teacher robbed at gunpoint but her car insurer refuses to pay (and even says she was to blame)
- During the ordeal, Ms Buckler had a gun held to her head and a knife at her throat
A student whose car was stolen after armed robbers took her keys while holding a gun to her head was refused a payout by insurer Admiral.
Trainee teacher Zoe Buckler, 29, has spent the past five months battling Admiral — one of Britain’s largest insurers — after her ordeal while working part time at a newsagent’s shop in Liverpool.
It is a case that demonstrates, once again, insurers’ attempts to wriggle out of paying legitimate claims, as the company ruled she was to blame for negligence.
Fight for justice: Trainee teacher Zoe Buckler after her traumatic robbery ordeal. She had the keys to her Vauxhall Corsa stolen when three men, armed with guns and knives, stormed in to the shop where she worked part-time
MPs have warned insurers they must not use small print and technical details to refuse legitimate payouts.
And Money Mail has frequently named and shamed the companies which are turning down the claims of honest policyholders.
Miss Buckler had the keys to her Vauxhall Corsa stolen when three men, armed with guns and knives, stormed in to the shop at 9.45pm.
The raiders pushed her into the back of the store, where they demanded she open the safe. During the ordeal, Ms Buckler had a gun held to her head and a knife at her throat.
The thieves made off with about £1,000 and also stole Ms Buckler’s handbag containing her car keys. ‘It only lasted a few minutes, but it felt like hours,’ she says.
Despite the ordeal, she was back at work the next evening.
That night, her car was stolen from the driveway of the house she shares with her boyfriend.
It was found by police ten miles away, lying in a field on its roof. The car, which was worth £2,000, was a write-off. However, Admiral rejected her insurance claim because it said Ms Buckler had been negligent with her keys.
In her traumatised state, she had not reported her car keys stolen to Admiral, but had done so to the police.
Write-off: A Vauxhall Corsa, similar to the one Ms Buckler had stolen from her home
Admiral argued the car thieves must have been the same criminals who had robbed the newsagent’s and had discovered her address by following her home from work that evening.
They said Ms Buckler should have realised the thieves would follow her and she should have changed the car’s locks.
‘It was horrifying to think I may have been followed,’ says Ms Buckler. ‘I moved back in with my parents for two months, because I was so traumatised.
‘Admiral had no sympathy for me whatsoever. They maintained it was entirely my fault the car was stolen.’
Realising the thieves may now know her home address after her car was stolen, Ms Buckler changed her house locks. But Admiral even used this against her, claiming she understood the risk of her property being stolen, even though this happened after the car had been taken.
Once Money Mail contacted Admiral, it made a U-turn and swiftly agreed to settle the claim.
A spokesman for Admiral, which has 2.8million customers under its Admiral, Elephant and Diamond & Bell brands, says: ‘We are sincerely sorry Ms Buckler’s traumatic experience has been compounded by the way in which her claim has been handled.
‘I can confirm we will be paying Ms Buckler for her claim and, by way of apology, we will be waiving the excess of £250 and offering her £500 compensation.’
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