The mastermind behind a seven-strong gang who set up 90 bogus companies to steal more than £800,000 in a VAT and car finance fraud has been jailed for six years.
Close Brothers Motor Finance is now running remote identity checks into finance applications.
A fraudulent car dealer has been sentenced to nearly three years in prison after confessing to swindling customers by selling unsafe vehicles that posed serious risks to their lives.
A fraudster held Beacon Garage's courtesy car hostage for almost five months while falsely claiming insurers would pay the estimated £8,000 bill for fully fixing his Land Rover.
Online fraudsters used headshots of a Hollywood actor and a Financial Times reporter to build a car retail website to scam car buyers out of thousands of pounds.
A former Evans Halshaw employee who diverted 73 DVLA cheques worth over £10,000 into his own bank account has avoided jail in a fraud hearing at York Crown Court.
A car retailer has avoided jail after admitting a £23,000 fraud to meet debts built-up as the result of a “significant midlife crisis”.
A fraudulent car dealer who clocked-up £190,000 in sales has been issued with a suspended prison sentence and an order to repay over £33,000 in proceeds of crime.
A car sales executive has been spared jail after he admitted diverting more than £11,000 of dealership sales proceeds into his personal bank account.
A celebrity car dealer who had been placed on the FBI’s ‘most wanted’ list faces up to 20 years in jail after pleading guilty to a £420,000 luxury vehicle sales scam.
A car dealership’s financial controller has been jailed for three years for defrauding the business of £252,000 as its owner struggled to fund his wife’s treatment for cancer.
COVID-19 social distancing measures are putting dealers at a higher risk of fraud in the part-exchange process, according to Cap HPI.
Car retailers have been warned to be on their guard after a fraudster attempted to scam the James Glen Car Sales out of £41,000 and a Porsche Cayman sports car by exploiting the Government’s Bounce Back Loans (BBL) scheme.
Lookers has requested that the listing of its ordinary shares be temporarily suspended, pending publication of its 2019 annual financial results.
The investigation into fraud at Lookers has exposed a £19 million ‘black hole’ resulting from overstated supplier bonuses, fraudulent expenses claims and the inconsistent application of policies, processes and accounting standards.
Lookers expects to be hit by a temporary suspension of shares trading after conceding that its 2019 annual financial results will not be published in time for the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) June 30 deadline.
Lookers will close a further 12 car dealerships and cut its employee headcount by up to 1,500 as part of a restructure plan aiming to make annual savings of £50 million.
Car retailers who have sought government support during the COVID-19 lockdown period are being warned to be on their guard as scammers posing as the HMRC launch an opportunistic fraud campaign.
Lookers has revealed that it will delay the publication of its 2019 annual financial results after finding evidence of potentially fraudulent transactions in one of its operating divisions.
Failing to report early suspicions of fraudulent activity to the finance regulator has left Bank of Scotland with a £45.5 million fine.
