When a consumer recently attempted to sell their Kia to the car broker webuyanycar.com, they experienced an undisclosed surprise. In the process, they discovered the vehicle had been accidentally “written off” with an insurance payout already paid. Webuyanycar.com took a look at a national database and found an alarming trend. They discovered a registration claim filed for the vehicle in question during February 2024!
The embarrassing human error at 1st Central, a UK-based insurance company, led to the mix-up. Most often they could not help the consumer because they'd been assigned an inadequate or even wrong claims reference number. As the insurer subsequently realized, it was an unfortunate typo that had doomed the car to the junkyard.
“We have subsequently investigated and found that human error meant an incorrect vehicle registration number was inputted into the write-off database. This highly rare anomaly occurred because the make, model and registration were almost an exact match for another vehicle.” – A 1st Central spokesperson
Desperate for resolution, the consumer began contacting every authority, organization, and agency. That’s when they reached out to Bedfordshire police, who told them to report the incident to Action Fraud, the national reporting center for fraud and cybercrime. The DVLA is responsible for administering driver and vehicle licenses. They would encourage consumers to submit a formal inquiry via written letter, and they guaranteed a response within six to eight weeks.
The ordeal was only resolved after nine months, as the consumer turned to the Guardian’s Consumer Champions for support. Eventually, they accepted an offer of compensation of £560 from 1st Central. This total included £110 for depreciation accrued during the time the issue was unresolved.