12:10 pm, July 31, 2024
Wheeler Dealers star Mike Brewer has called for a new national data base which would help car dealers avoid falling victim to ID scams, like the one that recently rocked his business.
Car Dealer reported yesterday how Brewer’s used car dealership – One Automotive in Warwickshire – fell victim to conman who used a stolen identity to purchase a £10,000 Volkswagen Golf.
After the crime was uncovered, bank Barclays returned the money to the victim of the ID fraud, leaving Brewer and his company out of pocket and one car down.
Now, in an exclusive interview with Car Dealer, the Used Car Awards host has opened up on how the ordeal has impacted his business.
He told our very own James Baggott that a system needs to be put in place, which would allow dealers to check drivers licences against a national database.
The Used Car Awards host also told dealers to avoid unseen purchases wherever possible and to be ‘vigilant’ to the threat of fraud on all sales.
He said: ‘Now the onus now falls on us – to the dealers and to the dealer network. Whether we are talking cars, machinery, boats, whether you’re selling a new pair of shoes at the shoe shop, it doesn’t matter.
‘The onus now falls on us, because we can’t rely on the banks out there to protect us or the scammed customer. We have to make sure that we do our due diligence. We will conduct it thoroughly in future and I’ve just want dealers out there to be warned.
‘Just be careful, be warned. I think the world changed now. I know this has been going on a while but now I’m the one that’s shouting about it and I think we all need to think about how we do business in the future, from this moment on.
‘Hopefully, off the back of this, somebody will come up with a national database of ID check. I know there’s going to be problems around that in terms of compliance but if there is a national database where we as a dealer network can get a drivers license and do a check on that driver’s license to see if it’s genuine or not. That would help in the future.
‘Maybe some clever person out there could work on that but [for dealers] make sure the customer is there physically in person, or you’re standing at their house. Don’t get your fingers burnt.’
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‘Police simply don’t care’
Brewer says the the shocking incident at his dealership has been reported to the police and he has been given a crime reference number.
However, he hit out at officers for ‘simply not caring’ and accused them of not treating cases of fraud as though they are ‘important’.
The 59-year-old TV star has previous dealings with the police, when a Ford Fiesta, that was set to appear on the Wheeler Dealers, was stolen from a car park.
The vehicle was never recovered, despite Brewer saying he gave police addresses of potential sightings.
‘We we have informed the police we have got a crime reference number – no good that’s going to do us with insurance,’ he told Baggott.
‘From my experience having the Fiesta stolen on Wheeler Dealers, the police, will they consider this fraud but it’s not that important to them.
‘If a car is caught doing 33 in a 30 that it will be found by our constabulary, but they simply don’t care and I’m sorry to say that out loud here about the UK police force.
‘But having been a victim of another car theft on my show Wheeler Dealers and the Fiesta that was never recovered. We’ve actually given the police addresses where that car is, as seen by other people, and they refuse to go and investigate it.
‘Unfortunately, the police won’t do anything and I’ve had that again, not just from my point of view, but several times several dealers have said the police just don’t want anything to do with it.’
‘Dealer is as much a victim as the cardholder’
Brewer is currently being assisted in the matter by automotive legal experts Lawgistics.
Nona Bowkis, head of legal services at the company, told Car Dealer that issues like Brewer’s take place on a ‘semi-regular basis’ and questioned how Barclays had handled the issue.
She said: ‘This sort of issue comes up on a semi-regular basis and the banks generally say that any card-not-present transaction is inherently risky and on that basis their first action is to take the money back from the dealer, who of course is as much a victim as the cardholder whose details have been stolen.
‘We don’t know how much investigation Barclays undertook when their customer complained. Did they simply believe what they said because they are a consumer rather than conduct a more thorough review of the matter?
‘If the banks know that the card-not-present transactions are inherently risky, why did they allow two transactions of over £5,000 to go through on the same card without asking for app authorisation from the customer?’
Car Dealer has approached Barclays for comment.
