Motorists Warned About Increase In Finance Fraud

Saturday, 20. December 2008

By way of an update and a warning I mentioned a few weeks ago about the likely increase in car finance fraud as the recession leads to desperation and potentially fraudulent actions by dealers and brokers simply to survive. I also mentioned the case of a lady who was hiding away an Audi in her garage, too frightened to drive it as bailiffs were trying to repossess it, following the collapse of a fraudulent broker/dealer, Gwent Fleet Management Ltd. Well, the latest news is that whilst the police continue their investigations it would seem that 33 finance companies have been caught up in the fraud at a cost of £3.6 million although the police believe that it could rise to £5 million. And this is just the money defrauded from the lenders, there are hundreds of drivers who have paid over money that they will never see again and court cases going on whereby lenders are seeking to repossess cars. One of the interesting statements made by a solicitor was that whilst with certain types of vehicle finance the statutory ‘innocent private purchaser’ rules apply whereby the driver is allowed to keep the car, in cases where the cost to the customer was extremely low, was the customer acting in good faith? If not the statutory rule would not apply as this test was not met. So a warning if you are simply dredging around for the cheapest rate – you could end up out of pocket without a car. In the current circumstances you should find a broker that you feel you can trust then get the very best deal you can out of him and avoid at all cost making advanced rental cheques out to the broker or dealer, make them out direct to the finance house or whenever you can pay by credit card. By Graham Hill