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You and Yours - Transcript 91热爆 Radio 4 |
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TX: 25.07.07 - Disabled drivers scam PRESENTER: STUART FLINDERS |
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THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT. BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE 91热爆 CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. Presenter An investigation has been launched into what appears to be the widespread and systematic abuse of a scheme designed to help disabled people buy cars. The government allows wheelchair users to buy new cars free of VAT but only for personal use. But You and Yours can reveal hundreds of thousands of pounds are being made by some disabled people who buy new cars VAT free and sell them on immediately at a healthy profit. Our reporter Shari Vaal has been looking at this, Shari what's happening? Vaal Well in the UK Stuart when you buy a brand new car you have to pay 17½% VAT on it. But a disabled person who uses a wheelchair can buy the same car adapted for them and be exempt from paying VAT as long as its for personal use. And it means they can buy the car 17½% cheaper and for high value cars that can be as much as a £20,000 saving. Now we understand that a specific group of wheelchair users have been buying very high value very high spec cars repeatedly over the last two years. Now Stuart I know who this specific group is but unfortunately for the moment I can't tell you. Presenter Okay but how does it work? Vaal Well what happens is the wheelchair user goes into a dealership and orders a high value car with a minor adaptation like a knob on the steering wheel and puts down a deposit. When the car arrives he pays for it and it's delivered to his house. The steering wheel knob is removed and he then, without driving it, sells it immediately to another dealership for more than he bought it. He pockets the profit and then goes back to a garage or another garage and buys another one. Presenter And they seem to be dealing only in high value cars, why's that? Vaal Well there are two reasons. First of all, the higher the value of the car, the bigger the saving on the VAT. Secondly, these cars are not imports and high value UK cars with a high spec are in great demand. There are often long waiting lists and buyers will sometimes pay way over the odds to get them quickly. Now to find out how long you have to wait I tried to order a top of the range 3.6 V8 Range Rover Vogue SE with leather seats and 20 inch alloy wheels and DVDs in the seats this week and I was told it would take six months but those lead times can be up to 18 months for really high spec cars. Presenter So you'd put in a series of orders over several weeks and then what just wait? Vaal Exactly. Now let's do some sums here. For me to order the car I've just described with all the toys costs £72,000 including VAT. For a wheelchair user the same car with just a knob on the steering wheel costs him £62,000. Now in this case when he collects the car he sells it to another dealer for £65,000, making an instant £3,000 profit. The dealer then sells the car to an innocent buyer, a member of the public, as new with just a hundred miles on the clock for £67,500 making a two and half thousand pound profit. But by selling a new top spec car for nearly £5,000 less than the order price not only does he undercut all the other dealers but a brand new top spec car is available to the public without the six month wait and of course deals like that are snapped up. Now I've found a car fitting that description in a showroom in Yorkshire, asking price £67,500 and whilst I couldn't record what went on the salesman let me take the car out for a test drive. Well fantastic test drive, it's a beautiful car. He told me that the reason it was discounted is because it was pre-registered. And when I asked what that meant he said that someone else had previously bought the car and it was registered in their name. And it wasn't him, it wasn't the garage but it was what he called a private individual. And it's that pre-registration which is the key to this because the moment a car is pre-registered it becomes second-hand. It may look new, it may only be a day old and only have a 100 miles on the clock - as that car did - but second-hand cars don't attract VAT. And buying a pre-registered car is perfectly legitimate but the profit chain only works in these cases because the wheelchair user is exempt from the VAT in the first place. Presenter Well you say the abuse is widespread, systematic, but what kind of numbers are we talking about? Vaal Well we can reveal that several wheelchair users in Yorkshire, the North East and Derbyshire have had up to 60 top spec Range Rovers each registered to their names in the last two years. That means they're each buying one car a fortnight. Another wheelchair user in Merseyside has 35 top spec Range Rovers, same kind of car, registered to his name. But we're not just talking about Range Rovers here. I've seen big engined pre-registered Mercedes and BMWs and I understand from a number of sources that Bentley's, Maseratis, Porches and Lamborghinis are all being bought and sold in this way, creating turnovers of millions of pounds for the garages and the disabled individuals involved. Presenter Is it illegal? Vaal Well the rules for disabled people buying cars VAT free are actually only guidelines, there's no legislation covering this. So the original buying the car bit may not be illegal. But the Department of Work and Pensions has launched an investigation into alleged benefit fraud, Vernon Saunderson is the head of the fraud team in Yorkshire and Humberside. Saunderson The benefit fraud aspect comes in where people are evidence suggests that their disability is not as severe as stated which in turn has allowed them to get the access to the scheme in the first place and also our rules on claiming incapacity benefit are quite clear which is you're only do to permitted work and buying and selling cars in large volumes certainly doesn't come under that criteria. Vaal And Detective Inspector Graham Wragg from South Yorkshire Police Fraud Squad has coordinated raids across four counties last week but he believes it's much bigger than that. Wragg I suspect there are more and more people across the country who are abusing the system in this way and there may be many more vehicles out there that have been obtained in this way. Vaal And we are talking about genuinely disabled people here aren't we, this is not a scam where people are pretending to be disabled? Wragg No, these people in the first instance all appear to have genuine disabilities, all are in receipt of benefits from the state in regard to their disabilities. Vaal So are we talking organised crime here, is this an organised criminal gang? Wragg I wouldn't say it's an organised criminal gang as such, it's a group of people who are linked by their disabilities, who seem to have recognised a weakness in this area and they're all doing the same kind of abuse of the system. Vaal Now six people have been released on police bail pending further enquiries into alleged money laundering offences. Presenter What does the VAT man say? Vaal Well Revenue and Customs which polices the VAT system won't comment on any investigation but I understand they've recently become aware of this practice. Presenter Shari thank you. Back to the You and Yours homepage The 91热爆 is not responsible for external websites |
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