FRAUD SQUAD INVESTIGATES MOTORHOME COMPANY CRASH

The collapse of a motorhome rental company with a history of rip-off complaints by customers has allegedly left up to 300 investors with losses of about £7 million.

In addition, before Unbeatable Hire Ltd went into administration it used eBay to sell motorhomes which were allegedly subject to chattel mortgages from lenders.

One of the buyers, Erica Mason, paid £24,250 for a motorhome from Unbeatable Hire in 2018 without being aware it was officially listed as the security for a loan to the company from an investor.

In August this year, “like a complete bolt out of the blue”, Ms Mason received a letter from a solicitor advising her that the investor could recover the vehicle or its value if she failed to settle a claim that she could not be the valid owner because the investor had a prior interest in the vehicle.

Ms Mason is fighting to retain her vehicle and believes “there are at least 40 buyers who face losing their motorhomes, having purchased them in good faith, typically spending between £20,000 and £35,000 on each vehicle.”

Equally, it appears there are the same number of people who loaned similar amounts (up to  £36,000 for each motorhome) to the company for what were advertised as regular interest payments, with those motorhomes as security.

In addition to an investigation by Cambridgeshire constabulary’s Serious and Complex fraud team, the company administrator, William Batty, reported he was investigating claims that some company motorhomes were lost in fires at depots, stolen, written off or missing in addition to those that were sold.  

Because the company appeared to be in breach of its agreement with some lenders Batty says he has reported the breach to the Insolvency Service.”

The government’s Insolvency Service says: “If it seems that a debtor, a company or its officers may have committed criminal offences or other regulatory breaches, the case may be referred to our Criminal Investigation Team, the police, a regulator or other investigation agency.”

The sole director of the company was self-confessed Lamborghini lover Andrew Hughes, 55 on November 24, of Golders Farm, Fox Road, Bourn, Cambridgeshire.

His company secretary and chief operating officer was Karen Oakley, 54, who is now a director and manager of Vaaroom Ltd, the company which bought the remains of Unbeatable Hire’s business, including the motorhomes, and now holds more than 100 chattel mortgages on investors’ motorhomes. 

Ms Mason is mounting a campaign to change the law relating to chattel mortgages so that they become obvious to prospective buyers when checking to discover if a vehicle is subject to such an encumbrance.

The chattel mortgages of vehicles were registered with Companies House but instead of the registration number being identified in the records the chassis number was used.

The registration certificate/log book does ask: “Do you know how to avoid being tricked into buying a stolen vehicle?” But the government website to which prospective buyers are directed does not mention chassis numbers.

In Ms Mason’s case the certificate listed Andrew Hughes and Motorhome Ltd as being the previous registered keeper, having “acquired the vehicle” on March 3 2012.

This was nearly two months after the motorhome had been officially registered as security for a loan from Nicholas Wannop on January 6 2012 as this link to the Companies House website shows.

In a general explanation about the scheme, administrator Batty said: “The motorhome was owned by the Company which was allowed to hire it and sell it without notifying the Lender, however if the Company sold a motorhome subject to a chattel mortgage, they were obliged to give the Lender replacement security.”

Ms Mason is asking others who have bought encumbered motorhomes from Andrew Hughes and Unbeatable Hire to contact her, saying: “Let’s look at this and see what we can do to rectify this because we’re all in the same boat and we’re all being targeted to return vehicles when, in my view, the investors’ grievance is with the company, not with us.”

A 60-year-old project manager, Ms Mason was devastated by the demand to give up her £24,250 investment. She has had no income this year and will probably have to cash in a pension.

When she received the solicitor’s letter “it was like being kicked in the stomach”.

“I’ve just been working solidly to try to put some money aside so that I can enjoy my retirement - and this was something that was a bit of a dream, a dream I’ve had for some years, and it’s about to be taken from me.”

I exposed the appalling record of Unbeatable Hire in a blog titled “Highway Robbery” in 2016.

Two years later the company blamed an IT glitch for failing to repay more than £200,000 in refundable deposits to about 300 customers for nine months and promised the problem had been fixed.

In September last year the company came up with a new excuse for the slow return of refundable deposits which it blamed on a shortage of staff.

One customer, Clare Orchiston, complained to Trustpilot she was due to receive her refundable deposit (about £1,250) in August last year but was still trying to get it back four days after the company went bust in December.

The huge number of complaints about the company’s behaviour reached a crisis in November when, according to administrator Batty, credit card payments of  £750,000 for hirings were reversed.

Unbeatable Hire’s final loan, authorised by company secretary Karen Oakley from a person named Kerry McManus, was received at Companies House on December 9 2019, two days before the company was placed in administration.

Ms Oakley joined Vaaroom the following month. A check of Trustpilot reviews shows that since September this year there have been 13 complaints (none of them related to Unbeatable Hire) about service, the condition of motorhomes and the return of deposits.

Mr Hughes and Ms Oakley have been invited to comment.

I emailed Mr Hughes on November 21: "Ms Erica Mason bought a motorhome from you for 24,250 pounds in 2018. Companies House shows that the motorhome she bought had a chattel mortgage registered with Nicholas Wannop. Solicitors acting for Mr Wannop say Ms Mason cannot be the legal owner of the vehicle because of the mortgage and that Mr Wannop has prior claim on the vehicle.
"Do you wish to comment on this situation - and on similar complaints?"

Mr Hughes replied by email: "Sure - what's your phone number?"

I emailed Mr Hughes: "To avoid any possibility of a misunderstanding during a phone conversation please send a written response... 
"Please also comment on the statement by ICO (Information Commissioner's Office) head of investigations Andy Curry: 'Digital Growth Experts played upon people’s concerns at a time of great public uncertainty, acting with a blatant disregard for the law, and all in order to feather its own pockets.' 
"There is no mention on the ICO website of an appeal against the 60,000 pound fine issued to Digital Growth Experts."

There has been no further response from Mr Hughes.

*If people who have bought motorhomes from Andrew Hughes and Unbeatable Hire would like to liaise with Ms Mason, contact me and I will pass your details to her.

This article was corrected on November 27 to remove the error notified by Ms Stanbridge (see comment below).

​I have removed comments from people who did not include an email address. Please feel free to contribute again with an email address. I have also removed comments which I felt were not respectful.