Successes18

The owner of a 2001 Peugeot 206 handed in one brand new Keyline aftermarket key for a his "missing" vehicle. The key has no sign of "normal" wear although was stated to be the only key in regular use for an entire year. The cuts were still sharp (these tend to "round off" after a few weeks of regular use) and the blade had been deliberately scratched to give the appearance of wear and tear (see pictures below). The key not only had no transponder but had a totally different mechanical key "code" to that held on record by Peugeot UK. In fact the manufacturer also had a different registration number on record for this chassis number so something rather strange is going on unless HPI checks subsequently reveal a cherished transfer and reallocation of a new number.

Even if this key fitted the locks it could not be used to start the car due to the lack of a transponder.

The images above show that this key has hardly been used in the lock of the vehicle (possibly never). The key is still sharp on it's peaks and shows no signs of lock internals "dragging" over the peaks as one would expect with insertion / withdrawal. The image on the right shows the artificial "wear" applied to the key by means of randomly scratching the sides of the key (a lock would not promote this kind of random wear pattern). The icing on the cake, however, is the lack of a transponder!

"Woooooow wo woooooaaaah, my Passat's on fire..."

One "flaming" fibber of a PH submitted a claim for the loss of his 2001 Passat. He claims it was stolen, only to be found abandoned with minor interior fire damage. There were no signs of a break in.. because the PH drove the car to the burn locus himself, set fire to the interior, shut and locked the doors with his key and then "hot footed" it away. The fire quickly went out due to a lack of oxygen due to the doors and windows being shut. He should have spotted the CCTV camera... it spotted him!!

Ambersett is now working with a Spanish Insurance Claims Handler, with offices in mainland Spain and Gibraltar in partnership with Eurotecs. This new partnership brings a new technical angle to compliment the investigation service already offered by Kevin Street of Eurotecs.