Business owners who carry out work through intermediaries have been urged by vehicle repair body, VBRA, to ensure that the intermediary has secure payment procedures.
Announcing the details of a new industry scheme, the VBRA warned some intermediaries do not have secure system and fail to account properly.
VBRA director general Ron Nicholson said: "It is essential that intermediaries specifically allocate and ring-fence the monies paid to them by their clients.
"In the event of them ceasing to trade, vehicle repairer businesses may lose a disproportionate amount of money for the work they have carried out, as it may have been used to pay others."