[PeterAllen]

I know this is off topic but the Insurance/Statutory write-offs and re-birthing reminds me of events many years ago which members may find amusing.

As fraud investigators we became aware gangs were stealing cars and stripping them, buying them back at salvage auctions and refitting the items. What they often didn’t foresee was that the cars would be vandalised prior to recovery which added to the rebuild cost; however, to overcome this, resourceful ones started to dump the stripped cars next to Police Stations to minimise the risk of vandalism via a quick vehicle recovery!

Also, when I worked in accident investigation we wanted to purchase straight cars for pole impact test and set out to buy up straight shell LH Toranas (this was some time ago). We ended up paying enormous amounts for salvage cars and it dawned on us we were competing against bidders who had the missing parts for these straight cars. After putting two and two together we organised to identify who these bidders were and searches of their premises frequently located stashes of stolen automotive equipment.

Now back to the topic.