500 Motorway Lorries Not Paid For
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A LTHOUGH Mr. A. R. Hill, manag(-V ing director of Hillwood Finance, Ltd., said on Sunday that finance companies had found themselves with dishonoured payments on about 500 lorries after the completion 'of the Mt, inquiries made by The Commercial Motor indicated that it was not the larger hirepurchase concerns who had been
• affected.
Mr. Hill spoke of hauliers who had obtained vehicles under hire-purchase arrangements, to work on the construction of the road, but who were unable to complete theirinstalments now that this had finished. In some cases, only the first few payments were made on lorries valued at up to £2,000..
In others, the hire-purchase companies had been given exaggerated values for the vehicles cancerned, on the explanation that extra, equipment was to be bought. The additional money advanced was used to make initial deposits. Numbers of the hauliers involved had disappeared, after abandoning their vehicles, the value of which was far below their original price. Some hauliers might be working in' other parts of the country and incurring fresh debts.
Hillwood Finance had reclaimed 15 lorries because the payments could not be made, said Mr. Hill, who alleged that frauds against hire-purchase concerns in Bedfordshire had been " on a wide scale."
A spokesman for United Dominions Trust, Ltd., remarked that it was his company's practice to examine hire-purchase proposals carefully when vehicles to be acquired were to be engaged on short term projects., .
Charter Securities, Ltd.; a Birmingham finance house, had no cases of ownerdrivers being unable to meet their debts; similarly Forward Trust, Ltd., reported no defaulters, but suggested that it was the smaller companies who had incurred difficulty in this respect.