The phone is ours - but vodafone will not accept it

[dcv]

My son found an Iphone 3gs. It had obviously fallen from a great height but had been lucky enough to hit mud and embed all but a corner of it. My son has eyes like a cat and spotted it. There was also no SIM in it.
Ok me being Mr honest and all for good Karma made sure we handed it in to the police and I assured my son that if we were honest we would get the phone back if the owner could not be traced and possible get a reward if the owner was traced. Whatever happened it would all be good karma for us.
Well it appears that Vodafone was blocking the phone via the IMEI but they only track customers via SIM. The remaining IMEI blocking database record had no owner information on it either because Vodafone did not add it or the IMEI blocking system cannot record it.
So the end result is the owner cannot be traced. So I believe in English law the phone now becomes my property as my son is under 16 and therefore cannot own anything. I also obtained a letter from the local police when the phone was returned stating that they could not trace the owner.
As the phone was now my legal property I asked Vodafone to remove the block so we could use it. I asked several times and tried various routes to get past the normal call centre operator. The answer I got was always the same “The phone will belong to a person or an insurance company – we can’t trace who it is – it is an unknown person – we will not remove the block”. I also tried writing to the legal department but got no reply. I can understand why Vodafone would not want to remove this block as it would cause a lot of inconvenience and problems working with the IMEI blocking system. However, as I see it we have been totally honest and the phone is now legally mine. The system should show my son that being honest is the best way to behave.
As I did want to show honesty pays to my son I went a step further and started a small claim at Worcester County Court Case Number 1IR26234 which cost £50. I put forward all the evidence above and also specifically stated that although Vodafone can refuse to serve me, that is enable the phone on their network, I believe they should not actively block the phone to prevent me using another phone network. They should cease and desist from running the block. I also believe in law that as the owner of a phone (not having a contract on it) they would be legally obliged to remove any tie in to their network from the phone (Network Lock not a block). The one sentence answer from District Judge Savage “The claim is struck out because the Claimant discloses no contractual or other basis obliging the Claimant to use it on their network”. This when I stated in the claim “I realise Vodafone have a right to refuse to serve me however they should not block me from other networks”. They want another £50 for me to go back to see the Judge and argue the point.
So from my point of view I am the legal owner of an Iphone 3gs which is unusable because Vodafone is running a blocking service against the IMEI number. They should recognise my rightful ownership and cease-desist from the blocking. This is bad karma on Vodafone and a poor example of honesty to my son.
Is there anything that anybody can think of that will enable my son to use the phone that is now rightfully his?
More info and docs on http://www.davidcvanes.webspace.virginmedia.com/html/iphone.html
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[Ben]

Hi dcv,

Welcome to Talk3G. Right or wrong, I don't think there's any way to get a blacklisted IMEI removed from the blacklist once added - especially if you're not the person who added it in the first place. Does anyone else on here have any experience with this?

[Wilt]

I don't think you should see it as Vodafone blocking you from other services, but other networks choosing to block access based on a list operated by a third party.

It might seem like the same thing, however, as I understand it, the networks only voluntarily agree to block IMEIs reported by other networks. So in theory, any network could accept your phone if they wanted to. Obviously they wont, otherwise there would be no point in the IMEI blocklist, and I think this is a decision that you're going to have to accept.

You have the physical item, which as you say is legally yours. That doesn't mean that any network has to necessarily accept the phone onto their network.