A pilot whose top-of-the-range Mercedes was stolen from his driveway 17 days ago says police have yet to retrieve it.
Harry Guilbert’s mint five-year-old A Class was taken after thieves broke into his home in Withington, Manchester to get the keys.
But 17 days later, he says he is still waiting for Greater Manchester Police to help despite the vehicle having been fitted with a working tracker.
His vehicle was valued at £19,000 at the end of last year and has only 22,500 miles on the clock.
The vehicle had been outside his property for six weeks, while Harry, 32, tried to re-register it with the DVLA.
He had been living in his native Guernsey when he bought it in 2020, which meant he was still unable to drive it in Greater Manchester after the plates expired.
This meant he was unable to insure the Mercedes – declaring it as ‘off the road’ while he waited for paperwork to be completed.
Mr Guilbert said: ‘I bought the car in January 2020 in Guernsey. I moved over from the Channel Islands to Manchester in April last year. I moved into my house in August. I bought the car brand new for £27,000.
Pilot Harry Guilbert’s A Class Mercedes was stolen by thieves but he claims police have yet to retrieve it despite the vehicle being fitted with a working tracker
Mr Guilbert’s (pictured) car was stolen as he was re-registering it with the DVLA
‘It was on Guernsey registration plates and I can only keep it on those for so long before I have to import it to the UK. Part of the rules when you are re-registering it is that it is declared as off the road.
‘The thieves have come down a little walkway by my house and broken in through the backdoor, walked through the house, got the keys, and took the car.’
While manufacturer Mercedes is able to share details on the car’s location with police, they are unable to tell the owner due to legal reasons.
Mr Guilbert added: ‘Mercedes can tell the police where it is but can’t tell me for legal reasons. By UK law they are not allowed to tell me where my own car is. The police have to instigate the chat and request the information.
‘The car has been missing for 17 days and I have contacted the police about eight times. I have only been able to speak to civilian operators.
‘All I get is that they will leave a message for someone to ring me back and they never do. I have had one email which said that they had not contacted Mercedes yet.’
He continued: ‘The car was not insured and so I was not driving it. I had to wait for it to be re-registered before I could insure it in the UK. It had been insured while on Guernsey plates, but once the period it could be in the UK on those plates had expired I had to get it re-registered before I could get new insurance.’
The car was taken January 16 sometime between 6.30pm and 10pm while Harry was away.
He said: ‘I have filed a formal complaint to GMP about the way they have handled this. The crazy thing is, it is such an easy win for Greater Manchester Police. All they have got to do is drop Mercedes an email and they will give them the tracking information.
‘Then they just ring Vodafone and they will have a very good idea of where the car is. But it could be anywhere now – it has been missing for 17 days. I know the tracker is still active on my car because I checked with Mercedes yesterday.’
Despite the car having been missing for 17 days and having an active tracker, police have yet to recover Mr Guilbert’s car
His father Paul said: ‘The car is a mint five-year-old Mercedes with a lot of sentimental value. It would cost over twice its current value to replace. A complaint has been lodged with the police which similarly has resulted in no apparent action.
‘Legal advice to date is solely that there is a likely avenue to sue the police, but really, all we require is the car back please. Surely this is an easy, low hanging fruit result for the police to locate the car and improve their car theft recovery stats?’
Greater Manchester Police in a statement said: ‘An enquiry was sent to Mercedes on 23 January 2025, and they responded that the vehicle could be tracked.
‘This will not provide a pinpoint accurate location for the vehicle but will narrow down its location. An investigation is currently ongoing.’
