Data reveals new mid-year high for volume and value of uninsured vehicles, including supercars worth millions, from a potential scrapyard fate.
£67 million worth of uninsured vehicles have been saved from disposal as cap hpi’s Crushwatch initiative continues to reunite finance companies with valuable assets.
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New figures released from automotive experts cap hpi have revealed that its Crushwatch scheme has helped finance and leasing companies identify a record £67,034,610 worth of uninsured vehicles in the first six months of 2020. Despite lockdown in late March and the effects of Covid-19, the figures are the highest since the scheme first launched.
Crushwatch was first devised in 2009 to allow Police Forces across the UK to check vehicles before disposal, giving the option of reuniting finance companies with their often very valuable assets. Using its comprehensive database of financed vehicles, cap hpi can identify cars that have been confiscated from uninsured drivers and then notify the rightful owners, usually the finance houses which have facilitated the original purchase agreement.
In June alone, UK Police Forces notified finance companies of £12,713,425 worth of assets, saving these vehicles from potentially being sold at auction, including;
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By GlobalData- Mercedes Benz G-Class valued at £114k
- McLaren 720S valued at £103k
- BMW M5 valued at over £57k
- BMW 7 Series valued at £55k
- Five Land Rover Range Rover Sports and a Discovery collectively worth over £268k
The 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.
By the end of June 2020, a total of £67 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. The £67m figure for the first half of 2020 is almost £2m up on 2019’s half-yearly figure of £65m, making it an all-time high for vehicles being saved through the Crushwatch program. Before the introduction of the scheme, these vehicles may have been disposed of without any ability to recoup investment or limit unnecessary scrap waste.
Nearly £138m of uninsured vehicles including supercars such as Lamborghinis, Rolls Royces, and McLarens were saved from potentially being crushed across the whole of 2019 – the highest volume in 11 years.
Working under the umbrella of the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) Vehicle Recovery Scheme, 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 Crushwatch figures for June 2020 reveal that the top five manufacturer makes most commonly avoiding the possibility of the auctioneers or the scrap yard following reclamation from the Police comprised BMW, Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and Vauxhall vehicles, together totalling £6.8m.
Tom Ingram, head of customer operations at cap hpi said: “Crushwatch is proving what a valuable role cap hpi 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 £67 million and over £12.7 million for June alone which indicates the problem is increasing year on year despite the presence of a global pandemic. Through an ongoing collaborative approach with Police Forces throughout the UK, we can help the leasing and finance companies to minimise losses and increasingly find resolution for the problem.”
