A BRITISH pensioner whose car was stolen and wrecked in an audacious ram-raid attack is threatening to sue his insurance company after it refused to pay out.
The victim, who The Olive Press can reveal is Marbella resident Barry Kirk, claims Mapfre has left him ‘out in the cold’ after his white Kia Ceed was stolen from Malaga airport on August 24.
Kirk, 75, who lives in Marbella, told The Olive Press the €26,000 car was a total write-off following the incident – and has now called in lawyers after Mapfre failed to step in, leaving him entirely out of pocket.
“This is an absolute disgrace,” he said. “My car was stolen and used to commit a crime, but seemingly it was no one’s responsibility.
“What good are insurance companies if they won’t cover something as blatant as this?”
Kirk’s ordeal began when he and his wife Susana returned from a trip abroad to find their Kia had vanished from an airport car park, run by 1 Parking.
Staff at the popular firm said they ‘didn’t know’ what had happened, and he was given a courtesy vehicle while they ‘attempted to unravel the mystery’.
They finally came back a week later to tell him that, incredibly, the car had been stolen by a 1 Parking employee and used in a ram-raid robbery.
The disgruntled employee, it emerged, had allegedly broken into the company’s office in Malaga’s Villa Rosa industrial estate, where he had forced open a safe containing €3,000.
As if proof was needed, the theft was captured on an extraordinary video, seen by The Olive Press, in which Kirk’s car can be seen crashing through the firm’s solid metal door.
The suspect, 37, was later arrested – but not before allegedly setting the Kia alight and abandoning the smoking wreck nearby.
With police involved and the case apparently cut and dried, Kirk expected a quick solution from either Mapfre or the firm’s insurance company, Generali.
So he was astounded to learn that neither would compensate him for the car.
Mapfre insisted it did not cover thefts committed by someone who had been legally entrusted with the car and expected to return it.
“How can that be? Essentially, it means that if my son borrows my car he’s uninsured,” Kirk said.
Company employees even told him and his wife it was their responsibility to clear the burnt wreck off the road, the pensioner told The Olive Press.
Meanwhile, Generali claimed that because the vehicle was stolen outside 1 Parking’s insured car park, the theft was not covered under its policy.
“It has been going backwards and forwards for nine months,” Kirk told the Olive Press this week. “It seems I have no choice but to launch a lawsuit.”
The only silver lining to the story was the support he received from 1 Parking, which has provided him with a free courtesy car until November 2026.
Both Mapfre and 1 Parking have been approached for comment.
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