CrushWatch reunites cars with owners

More than half a billion pounds worth of uninsured UK vehicles have been saved from potentially being crushed in the last decade including Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Bentleys and Aston Martins.

Vehicles including supercars and high-value cars to the tune of £543,712,611 that had been confiscated from uninsured drivers were among those saved from being scrapped, according to figures released from HPI through its CrushWatch scheme.

CrushWatch launched officially in 2009 to allow UK police forces to check vehicles before disposal, giving the option of reuniting finance companies with their often very valuable assets.

In the past 10 years, the average value of each vehicle saved by CrushWatch has almost doubled from £5,589 in 2009 to £9,052 in 2018. The number of checks carried out has also increased nearly five-fold since the start of the scheme a decade ago.

The figures for the last full year (2017) showed that the overall total saved for was £94m.

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 returned to the road, sold at auction or scrapped are reunited with their legitimate owners under the innovative scheme.

Barry Shorto, head of industry relations at HPI, said, ‘It’s staggering to think that in the ten years that CrushWatch has been operational over £500m worth of vehicles have been saved and secured. 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.’