Insurers said to be delaying payment over Autofocus case
Accident Exchange announce half year results showing adjusted revenue down 24% to £64.3m (£85.0m) but adjusted profit before tax up 67% to £4.0m (£2.4m).
It reported revenue was £61.6m, producing a reported loss before tax of £6.5m,
It said it reduced its total net debt to £144.3m from £174.0m.
It supplied rental vehicles to 19,900 customers (2008: 18,700) and recorded 585,000 rental days (2008: 570,000).
David Galloway, Non-Executive Chairman, said: "The financial crisis and the recession that has followed have altered operating conditions, imposed new challenges and exacerbated existing ones.
Autofocus court case
“Having discovered the systemic dishonesty in Autofocus' rate evidence during the period, we are pursuing a legal remedy against them and have also made some progress in accelerating claim settlement by improving the subsequent engagement of insurers and their defendant solicitors.
“We consider the Autofocus evidence to be dishonest in light of discoveries that we made towards the end of August 2009, and we continue to take steps to secure a judicial finding of fact against Autofocus and / or its remaining and previous employees.
“In the case of two of their former employees we have obtained leave of the Court to commence committal proceedings for contempt on the basis that the trial judge found there to be 'more than a reasonable prima facie case' that false statements were made by the individual acting as a witness.
“We consider the adverse impact of Autofocus to have been twofold: first, we believe insurers have actively slowed down payments to the Group as they expected to benefit from the additional timeline of us litigating unpaid claims; secondly, insurers anticipated achieving a significant reduction to our charges in Court proceedings as, it is our contention, Autofocus evidence has influenced judges to award significantly lower amounts than we believe are justified.”
Autofocus has consistently denied any wrong doing and has said it will contest any legal action.
