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Nearly £700m worth of uninsured cars saved from scrapheap in 10 years

Vehicles weren’t restricted to regular cars either – several high-end supercars were rescued

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Nearly £700 million worth of uninsured cars have been rescued from the crusher over the past decade, new figures have revealed.

It’s reported by the HPI Crushwatch programme, which helps to avoid the scrapping of confiscated cars with outstanding finance and returns them to the finance companies which legally own them.

Introduced in 2009, it gives police forces a database which they can check any vehicle which they have seized against. It means that forces are able to return cars to their rightful owners rather than having them crushed.

Barry Shorto, head of industry relations at HPI, said: “It’s staggering to think that in the time that Crushwatch has been operational over £670m worth of vehicles have potentially been saved. The success of the initiative illustrates the need to crack down on driving without insurance, drivers who are causing a risk to other road users and pedestrians.

The average value of each vehicle saved in the scheme has almost doubled from £5,589 in 2009 to £9,317 in 2019. So far this year 7,036 cars have been saved from the scrapheap, with a collective value of £65,556,520.

And it appears that high-end cars are being saved too. Figures for 2018 show that four Lamborghini Aventadors – valued between £162,000 and £302,000 – were recovered, along with one Lamborghini Huracan worth £173,000. In addition, a Ferrari 458, two Rolls Royce Dawns and a Mercedes-AMG GT worth £248,000, £212,000, £178,000 and £153,000 respectively were saved.

Barry Shorto, head of industry relations at HPI, said: “It’s staggering to think that in the time that Crushwatch has been operational over £670m worth of vehicles have potentially been saved. The success of the initiative illustrates the need to crack down on driving without insurance, drivers who are causing a risk to other road users and pedestrians.

“Sadly our data reveals that drivers of supercars and premium vehicles are not exempt from this practice. Preventing this from happening is not just a safety issue but also about enabling finance companies across the UK to reclaim their vehicles which otherwise may have ended up at auction or on the scrap heap.”

The total figure recorded in 2018 of £122m was up on the previous year’s figure of £94, representing an all-time high for the programme. However, given that £65m worth of cars have been recovered so far in 2019, this record figure could be eclipsed this year.

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