Car nut finds missing parts of his Renault 5 Turbo on sale on Facebook 19 YEARS after they were stolen
Phil Abiodun claims the parts were stripped from his Renault 5 Turbo - and now says they've appeared online
A PETROLHEAD has claimed parts from his classic Renault have appeared for sale on Facebook - 19 years after they went missing.
Phil Abiodun said he spent months upgrading his beloved Renault 5 Turbo before it was stripped of its parts.
The dad-of-one added several custom modifications to his hatchback but claims a rogue garage worker then secretly stripped it down in 1999.
The car nut that he believes they've now resurfaced on a Renault specialist Facebook group.
He said he was shocked to see the car's bonnet for sale online and then found other parts that belonged to him bundled together worth £1,000.
The 41-year-old said: "At the time the car was worth about £1,500. Now it would be a collector’s item, worth about £12,000.
“I’d taken it to the garage to be spray-painted. I wasn’t in any rush to get it back, I was working on other cars too.
“But after a couple of months I called to see what was going on. I couldn’t get a straight answer so I went down to see the lad who’d been painting it.
“They told me he’d left. We went round the back – and what was left of my car was there. It was just a shell with bits of the engine still on it. I was gutted. Someone had had a free-for-all.”
A police investigation found no leads although Phil did spot another Renault 5 near the garage in Stockport, Greater Manchester.
It was fitted with some new limited edition dashboard dials and bumpers that were his.
Phil told the Mirror: "They told me they’d bought them in good faith from the lad who had disappeared from the other place."
Phil, who buys old cars before renovating them and selling them on said he logged onto Facebook and couldn't believe seeing his old parts - including a bonnet, spoiler and wheel arches - 19 years later.
He said: "I knew it straight away, it was unique. I’d cut two little vents into it. It had looked amazing, in pearl white. Someone’s done a bad spray job on it, in black – but I knew it was mine."
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Phil tracked the seller and contacted police, but believes they have not taken him seriously.
He said: “I don’t believe the seller has done anything wrong – they were taken 19 years ago. They could’ve been sold on several times.
“But they’re stolen goods, no matter how long ago it was. Those parts are definitely mine – and I’d like them back.”