Buy a Car in the UK on Your Behalf

Most cars advertised online in the UK are genuine, but criminals place adverts too, and a buyer in another country is an easy target because they cannot go and look at the car. The Police Service of Northern Ireland calls this “Virtual Vehicle” fraud: paying a seller you have never met for a car you have never seen.

The warning signs

• A price well below what similar cars are selling for
• Photos copied from a genuine advert, or a website made to look like a real dealer’s
• An excuse for why the car cannot be viewed, or pressure to pay a deposit or the full price before anyone has seen it
• A request to pay by bank transfer, sometimes into what looks like a payment or escrow service that promises to hold the money for a while before releasing it to the seller

Action Fraud, the police’s fraud reporting service until December 2025, warned car buyers about emails like these. They claimed to come from a large company’s payment service, but the “holding account” had been set up by the fraudsters to get the money paid before the buyer had seen the car.

A real car can still be a bad buy

A car that exists can still be stolen, carry the identity of another car (known as cloning), or still belong to a finance company. The logbook names the registered keeper, who is not always the legal owner. Police advice warns that someone who unknowingly buys a stolen car can have it taken away and lose what they paid. Sellers do not always describe a car’s condition honestly either, and a fault found once the car has arrived abroad is far harder to put right.

What the official advice says

• Before going to see a car, check that its details match DVLA’s records, check its MOT status and history, and check whether it has been recalled.
• At the viewing, make sure the logbook has a “DVL” watermark, that its serial number is not in the ranges of stolen logbooks GOV.UK lists, and that it matches what you were told. The vehicle identification number (VIN) and engine number on the car should match the logbook too.
• Do not pay a seller a deposit, or anything else, until the car has been seen, and be wary of a seller you have not met who asks for a bank transfer.
• If you think you have been defrauded, tell your bank straight away. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, fraud is reported to Report Fraud, which replaced Action Fraud in December 2025. In Scotland, it is reported to Police Scotland. If you live outside the UK, report it to your own police as well. Be wary of anyone who then offers to get your money back: Report Fraud warns that this is a second scam.

Buying through us puts those checks between you and the seller. We do them for you, view the car in person and pay the seller ourselves, so your money goes to our UK business rather than to someone you only know from an advert.

Based on GOV.UK’s “Check a used vehicle you’re buying” (DVLA and DVSA), the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s vehicle buying advice, Staffordshire Trading Standards, Report Fraud’s published advice and Action Fraud’s warnings to car buyers.

GOV.UK advises checking a car’s records before going to see it, and that is the order we work in. Some of the records are free government services. The rest come from a paid history check from a UK vehicle check provider.

Free government records

• DVLA’s vehicle enquiry service: whether the car is taxed or declared off the road (SORN), when its MOT expires, when it was first registered, when its logbook was last issued, its engine size and fuel type, and its export status.
• MOT history on GOV.UK, from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA): each MOT result since 2005, the mileage recorded at every test and, for tests in Great Britain, the parts that failed or had minor problems. Mileage that goes down between tests needs explaining.
• DVSA’s recall check on GOV.UK: whether the manufacturer has recalled the car because of a serious safety problem.

The paid history check

A paid check brings together records that are not open to the public. It shows whether the car:

• has been reported stolen. Check providers take this from the national police records of stolen vehicles. We see that information only through the check, and we have no access to any police system.
• still has money owing on it under a finance agreement. If it does, the finance company may still own the car, whatever the seller says.
• has been written off by an insurer, and in which category. Insurance claims on written-off and stolen cars are recorded in a database run by the Motor Insurers’ Bureau, long known as MIAFTR and now called Vehicle Salvage and Theft Data, and check providers receive that data.
• has had its number plate changed, or is showing a mileage that does not match its records.

What a check cannot tell you

A clear result is not a guarantee. Police advice is that a history check may not show that a stolen car has been cloned. A cloned car carries the identity of a genuine one, so a check on its registration reports on the genuine car. That is why the viewing matters: we match the VIN and engine number on the car to the logbook, and look at the car itself.

What you receive

Each car you ask about gets a short summary of the findings and our view on whether it is worth viewing. Once you decide to go ahead and the service charge is paid, we send you the complete report.

Our service charge depends on the value of the car, so we quote it once we know which car it is. It covers contacting the seller, negotiating, the history check, the viewing with photos and video, and buying the car and collecting its documents from the seller.

Quoted on top of the service charge

• Collection from wherever the car is to the departure port, at £1 per mile
• Shipping by RoRo or container. The shipping price covers UK export clearance, port handling, the DVLA export paperwork, the Bill of Lading, posting the original documents to you by UPS or DHL, and the voyage to your destination port.

Extras, quoted separately if you want them

• A detailed mechanical inspection by an independent inspector
• Marine insurance on a container shipment
• A pre-export inspection, where your country requires one
• The onward leg from a hub port, where your country is reached through another country’s port
• Customs clearance, registration and delivery at the destination through a local agent, or we work with an agent of your choice

Import duty and taxes in your country are yours to pay as the importer, whoever clears the car.

VAT

We are not VAT registered, so we do not add VAT to our charges and cannot reclaim VAT on a car. If the car is new or VAT-qualifying and the seller is a VAT-registered dealer, the dealer may be able to sell it free of UK VAT for export. In that case the dealer invoices the car to you, the overseas buyer, rather than to us, and we send the dealer the proof of export. It is the one case where we do not buy the car first and sell it on: HMRC lets only the sale to the overseas buyer be zero-rated (VAT Notice 703, paragraph 4.1), and we are not VAT registered, so the saving would be lost. Our tax-free car exports page explains which cars qualify.

Payment

• A £1,000 deposit secures the car. It is part of the price, not an extra fee.
• The balance is due in full, in cleared funds, before the car is loaded, unless your quotation sets out different terms.
• Bank transfer preferred. Card payments up to £5,000, with no fee on personal debit or credit cards.
• Letters of credit, cheques, money orders and cash are not accepted.

You can cancel before the car is loaded, but a purchase we have completed on your instructions is one of the costs you remain responsible for. Our terms and conditions explain what is refunded.

We deal with requests in the order they reach us, and a seller can sell to someone else at any time until we have bought the car. Send it to us the day you find it.

About the car

• Where the car is, and its make, model and registration number
• The advert link, or the name and phone number or email of the dealer or private seller
• The most you are prepared to pay, and anything you want us to ask the seller or check at the viewing

About you

• Your full name, address, phone number and email
• One government-issued photo ID and one utility bill showing your address
• If you are buying for a company, the company’s registration documents
• If the car is for someone else, the name and address of the person or company receiving it

We need these for customs and for anti-money-laundering checks.

Check what your country allows before you choose a car. Age limits, emissions standards and left- or right-hand-drive rules vary, and they are your responsibility.