‘Vehicle Web Limited’ Spun Web of Deceit

A Waltham Abbey, England based “vehicle matching” company has been wound up in the High Court following an investigation by Companies Investigation Branch. Vehicle Web Limited claimed to operate a “vehicle matching” business, involving the matching of sellers of motor vehicles to prospective buyers of those vehicles.

Sellers of vehicles who had placed advertisements in car magazines and websites were cold called by the company’s market research staff. The market research staff would explain the nature of the service provided and potential customers were then sent a copy of the company’s terms and conditions. A member of the sales staff would then call the potential customers approximately two days later and make the “sale” by signing the customer up to the vehicle matching service. The company offered two packages to the customer, either the full price of £95 that included a photograph or a £50 fee that did not include a photograph.

Buyers for customer’s vehicles were either people who had looked at the company website and called specifying the vehicle they wished to purchase or more ordinarily they were customers who had been asked what car they were looking to purchase once their present one was sold. The company’s director said that very few people actually called requesting details on a specific car and buyers recorded on the database were sellers who had been asked what car they wanted next.

The company made numerous misrepresentations to potential customers including that it had been established for over 18 months and had successfully matched over 7,500 cars in that time. It maintained that it had identified at least three buyers in the customer’s area willing and in a position to purchase the customer’s vehicle. It also said that, if their vehicle was not sold within seven days, customers would receive a full refund of their fee.

These statements were false. No check was carried out as to whether there were any prospective buyers for the customer’s vehicle, or where such buyers were situated, before the claim was made that there were at least three buyers in the customer’s area. When they sought a refund from the company, customers were told that they were only entitled to a refund if the company did not “match” their vehicle to a buyer, or where the buyer used the company as a source of vehicle finance. There were only 6,320 customers in total listed on the company’s database, and hence the company could not have matched 7,500 cars as it claimed. In any event, no records were kept of whether a vehicle had been matched or how many (if any) matches or sales there had been.

Companies Investigation Branch was unable to determine the whereabouts of payments in the amount of £205,490 in cashed cheques between 7 April 2006 and 9 January 2007. The company did not maintain a cashbook and the director failed to provide an explanation of the payments, which represent 50% of the total receipts in that period.

Source: Insolvency Service

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