I recently damaged the car of a visitor to our house here in Cornwall, whilst manoeuvring my van in our drive. This was my fault as the other vehicle, an Audi A5, was parked and empty, and I misjudged the distance. The result was a dent in the rear offside wing behind the wheel arch about the size of a side plate: 250mm across and about 25mm deep at most, there was no damage to my van at all.

I informed my insurers that there would be a claim for the repair against my policy, and our visitor contacted their Audi dealership in South London to carry out the work. I was shocked to hear that the quote for this small amount of damage was £3500, in addition to which the repairers were actively encouraging our friends to take an expensive hire vehicle for the time of the work. I called the underwriter of our policy with a suggestion that they get an engineer to check this price before authorising the work, but I was met with total indifference.

Something should certainly be done to curtail these practises, as it seems that as soon as it is a no-fault claim on the insurer, these people rub their hands with glee at the profits to be made.