UnbeatableHire's motorhome loan scheme collapsed owing £7M with 123 vans missing

UnbeatableHire Limited, which traded as Motorholme with depots across England and Scotland, invited people to lend it up to £36,000 a time. Each loan was to buy an individual motorhome, with the lender's right to it recorded in a chattel mortgage filed at Companies House, and lenders were promised their money back plus returns of up to 10% a year. The scheme ran for almost a decade and hundreds of lenders received monthly interest, and those who cashed out before the collapse got their money back.

The company went into administration in December 2019 owing more than £7 million, and the BBC reports that administrators Antony Batty & Company found about 350 motorhomes remaining and another 123 'missing'. Some were recorded as stolen but never reported to police, and others were written off in two fires at depots. About 80 had been sold with chattel mortgages still attached, some vehicles had more than one mortgage listed, and some lenders discovered loans meant for new vans had bought second-hand ones.

Managing director Andrew Hughes denied doing anything deliberately wrong, saying the agreements allowed sales, that lenders were allocated replacement vehicles on an internal register, and that the collapse was caused by 'unexpected and external circumstances'. He accepted the chattel mortgages at Companies House had not been updated. The administrators think the agreement may have been breached and reported their concerns to the Insolvency Service.

More than £7M owed; 123 motorhomes missing; one lender who put in £70,000 says he faces losing his house

Charges filed at Companies House were not updated when vans were sold, so lenders' recorded security no longer matched reality.

Some vehicles carried more than one chattel mortgage, which left later lenders behind the first charge.

Some lenders' funds were used to buy second-hand vans, despite being told new vehicles would secure the loans.

The company tracked replacement security in an internal spreadsheet rather than registering it, according to Hughes.

Security only protects lenders if the collateral exists, is unique and stays with the loan. A spreadsheet of replacement vehicles is not the registered charge investors were told they had.

The 350 remaining motorhomes were sold to another firm or handed to lenders, so those lenders got a van or some or all of their money back. For lenders whose vans were lost or sold, a court battle looked likely against innocent buyers who had paid for vans carrying mortgages. Hughes said replacement vans were ordered but had not arrived when the company went into administration, and that he was 'very sorry'. The claims about the scheme are the administrators' and lenders', and he denies breaching the agreement.