The Great British Car Insurance Write-off Scandal

Cars that have been deemed insurance write-offs following serious accidents are passing vehicle history checks with a clean bill of health and being sold to unsuspecting motorists, Auto Express can exclusively reveal. Vehicle history checks are relied on by countless buyers every year to reveal whether a car is subject to outstanding finance, has mileage irregularities, has been stolen, has previously been scrapped or has been deemed an insurance write-off. Despite this, all of these cars passed the vehicle history checks offered by both HPI and Experian AutoCheck, and were being marketed to consumers as never having been written off. We found 10 cars that had been sold at salvage auction as declared Cat S write-offs, making a note of the VIN plates displayed in the salvage listings. We paid for HPI and Experian AutoCheck history checks, cross-referencing VINs and registration plates with the reports. Some of the cars generated alerts for outstanding finance or mileage discrepancies, but not one check from either HPI or Experian flagged any of these cars as an insurance write-off.

Auto Express was alerted to this issue by a reader who uncovered inconsistencies with history-checking companies after buying a used car he discovered had previously been sold via salvage auction. After we learned of this problem, we contacted vcheck and were provided with a number of cars that had raised similar concerns. This Renault Captur was auctioned as a Cat S write-off in February 2018 with significant front-end damage. Its odometer read 12,957 and it was listed with a suggested retail value of 拢12,370. By March 2019 this Captur had been repaired and was advertised with 17,000 miles for 拢9,750. HPI and Experian checks did not reveal its write-off history. This Toyota Yaris was auctioned as a Cat S write-off in August 2018 with significant front-end damage and a suggested retail value of 拢9,330. By March 2019 this Yaris had been repaired and was advertised for sale to consumers for 拢8,995. HPI and Experian checks did not reveal its write-off history. This Ford B-MAX was auctioned as a Cat S write-off in July 2018 with significant front-end damage and a suggested retail price of 拢7,400.

By March 2019 this B-MAX had been repaired and was advertised for sale to consumers for 拢6,490. HPI and Experian checks we performed did not reveal its write-off history. This Skoda Superb was auctioned as a Cat S write-off in June 2018 with significant front-end damage. By March 2019 this Superb had been repaired and was advertised for sale to consumers for 拢7,250. HPI and Experian checks did not reveal its write-off history. This Honda Jazz was auctioned as a Cat S write-off in May 2018 with significant front-end damage. By March 2019 this Jazz had been repaired and was advertised for sale to consumers for 拢10,950 and Experian checks did not reveal its write-off history. This M4 was auctioned as a Cat S write-off in April 2018 with significant damage to its undercarriage. By March 2019 this M4 had been repaired and was advertised for sale to consumers for 拢35,472. HPI and Experian checks did not reveal its write-off history.

How do vehicle history checks work? Experian AutoCheck and HPI - the two biggest players in the business - told us that they exclusively rely on the Motor Insurance Anti Fraud & Theft Register, or MIAFTR, to determine if a car has been written off. MIAFTR is a nationwide database run by the Motor Insurers鈥?Bureau (MIB), and 97 per cent of insurance companies subscribe to it. When an insurer writes off a vehicle, those subscribing to MIAFTR place it on the Register as a write-off. Some history-check businesses outsource to these two companies. The AA relies on HPI data, for example, while the RAC uses Experian. The MIB told us that 鈥?7 per cent of the motor insurance market currently subscribe to the MIAFTR database to load the details of their written-off vehicles鈥? There are 203 UK motor insurance companies authorised by the Bank of England, meaning six do not use MIAFTR; cars written off by these six insurers are unlikely to be detected by history checks. The MIB suggested that a car may not be detected as a write-off 鈥渋f the vehicle is not comprehensively insured鈥?