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Guy Vickers from Exchange Chambers has successfully acted for Accident Exchange Ltd in the latest stage of its long-running legal battle concerning defunct car hire rate surveying company Autofocus Ltd over allegations that it manipulated credit hire spot rate data.
Lord Justice Aiken ruled in the Court of Appeal that the accident management company could appeal on four cases, in which it alleges that Autofocus provided evidence on credit hire spot rates that was incorrect and potentially fraudulent.
Autofocus supplied a number of motor insurers with reports on credit hire rates until it went into administration last year.
The cases in question are William Craig Thomson v S Landsdown; Sharon Seatory v D Oliver; Glen Sharples v Peter Brown and S Purushothaman v Irfan Malik.
In all four cases, which were heard last week, Lord Justice Aiken ruled that there was sufficient merit for Accident Exchange to appeal despite the appeals coming 2 to 3 years out of time and that the upper Court would permit the introduction of fresh evidence identifying the widespread falsification of rates data in Autofocus reports.
He also said that a further eight outstanding cases, which are currently before county courts, can be referred to the higher court for appeal. Accident Exchange allege that there are many thousands of cases which were settled or decided on the basis of dishonest Autofocus evidence as a result of which they have suffered losses of between £20 and £50 million and which they will now seek to have overturned and re-litigated, if necessary.