The Finance & Leasing Association (FLA)
has launched Car Crime Awareness Week (26-30 March) in the UK with
campaigns to encourage vehicle history checks and guard against
conversion fraud as the number of motorists selling cars they do
not own is on the rise.
The FLA is warning consumers one in three used
cars has a hidden history and should there be outstanding finance
owed on the vehicle, a used car could be repossessed by the finance
company which owns it.
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Deliberately selling on a car with outstanding
finance, known as conversion fraud, accounted for almost 40% of all
car fraud from October to December 2011, according to the FLA, a
10% increase, year-on-year.
Although overall motor finance fraud cases
fell 2% in 2011 compared with 2010, conversion fraud showed a 10%
increase in the last quarter of 2011 compared to the same period in
2010.
The majority of cars reported in fraud cases
in the last quarter of 2011 were high-end cars, e.g. Mercedes and
BMW; and also family saloons, such as Toyota, Renault and
Vauxhall.
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By GlobalDataTo guard against such the FLA is encouraging
those who would buy a used car to check it using agencies such as
Experian, HPI or CDL,
which should reveal any outstanding finance, and warned those who
would sell a car for which they owe finance to fulfil the
obligations of their credit agreement.
DCI Mark Hooper, head of the ACPO Vehicle
Crime Intelligence Service, with which Car Crime Awareness Week is
run, urged consumers to complete checks “before parting with any
money and make sure you can trace the seller.”
Meanwhile, Paul Harrison, head of motor
finance at the FLA commiserated with people selling their vehicles
to overcome financial difficulties but reminded them to speak their
finance company before or risk being “classified as a
fraudster”.
Additional advice includes: take the car for a
test drive, avoid paying with cash and always meet the seller at
their residential address.
Full interviews with Alistair Scullion of
Experian and DCI Mark Hooper of AVCIS will be published in
April’s issue of
Motor Finance
magazine.
richard.brown@vrlfinancialnews.com
