£52 million worth of uninsured vehicles saved from disposal

£52 million worth of uninsured vehicles saved from disposal as Crushwatch initiative continues to reunite finance companies with valuable assets.

New figures released from automotive experts HPI have revealed that its Crushwatch scheme has helped finance and leasing companies identify £52,465,546 worth of uninsured vehicles in the first six months of 2018.

In June alone, UK Police Forces notified finance companies of £9,851,885 worth of assets preventing vehicles including a Lamborghini Aventador valued at £278K, two Lamborghini Huracans valued at £143k and £111K together with a Land Rover Range Rover Sport, an Audi R8, Range Rover Velar and Mercedes Benz S-class valued at £75k, £54K, £50K and £48K respectively from potentially being sold at auction.

The hpi Crushwatch initiative helps lenders both reduce their losses and contribute to road safety by reclaiming their assets from the police. Uninsured vehicles which would have been sold at auction or worse still, scrapped are reunited with their legitimate owners under the innovative scheme.

A total of £94 million worth of vehicles which had been seized for being driven without valid insurance were flagged up to the finance and leasing companies who legally owned them during 2017. The £94m figure for the whole of 2017 was £7m up on 2016’s figure of £87m, making it an all-time high for hpi Crushwatch regarding vehicles saved. Before the introduction of the scheme, these vehicles may have been disposed of without their knowledge.

Working under the umbrella of the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) Vehicle Recovery Scheme, hpi Crushwatch assists Law Enforcement Agencies with identifying if vehicles confiscated from uninsured drivers, rightfully belong to a finance house.

The figures highlight that owners of high-value cars are not immune from driving without valid insurance resulting in the reclamation of vehicles across the UK which otherwise may have found themselves at auction or on the scrap heap.

The latest hpi Crushwatch figures for June reveal that the top five manufacturer makes most commonly avoiding the possibility of the auctioneers or the scrap yard following reclamation from the Police consisted of Vauxhall, Ford, BMW, Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz totalling over £5.5m.

Barry Shorto, Head of Industry Relations at HPI, said: “Crushwatch is proving once again what a valuable role it plays in the process of clamping down on uninsured drivers. Halfway through the year we are looking at a total value of vehicles of over £52 million and over £9.8 million for June alone which indicates the problem is increasing year on year. Through an ongoing collaborative approach with police forces throughout the UK, we can help the leasing and finance companies to minimise losses and increasingly get to grips with the problem.”