Retailers and finance companies should abandon the “dubious and immoral daylight robbery” of documentation and arrangement fees or face more consumer defections to High Street and direct lenders.

The warning comes from Ling Valentine, the intentionally controversial founder of lingscars.com, a growing internet contract hire operation. She claims that some dealers and loan providers encourage her to “pocket the charges as pure profit”.

Valentine calls on consumers to tell dealers to “stuff it” and threaten to arrange finance elsewhere when asked for acceptance or option to purchase fees.

She adds: “The fact that some finance companies charge fees and others don’t proves how dubious they are.”

In April, David Johnson, group F&I manager for Perrys, told AM that rising fees were obstacles to selling point of sale finance. “The charges vary and have got out of control,” he said.