How the Government's initiatives against insanity driving will affect the leasing industry

With nine new initiatives, the Government aims to remove the insane drivers from the streets and strengthen safety and security on Danish roads. Among other things, it is happening by increasing the police's ability to confiscate cars used for insane driving and with a more significant effort against the use of straw men in leasing.

December 15, 2020

By Jan Johannes Kyhnæb

The leasing companies have involuntarily become a focus after several violent episodes of insane driving in the so-called "muscle cars", which according to the police, are often driven by gang members

This is what DR wrote in an article from August last year. In the article, they take a close look at the problem with the use of so-called straw men when people lease cars with the purpose of insane driving. "The problem is that in many cases the driver is not the owner of the vehicle; it is leased and appears in another person's name, a so-called straw man", they write.

The car must be confiscated - regardless of who owns it

If an insane driver today drives a leased car, the police can only, to a minimal extent seize it, for confiscation.

That is likely to change now. According to the Government's initiative, the police will in the future confiscate a car used for insane driving - unless there are special reasons for not doing so. It also applies if the vehicle is not owned by the driver but by a third party, e.g., a leasing company. This means that the police will seize, confiscate, and put cars up for auction, regardless of who the owner is.

This has consequences for the leasing companies because the car is not returned to them but is resold, after which the money goes to the Government. In an interview with DR from the beginning of the year, Christian Brandt, director of the industry association Finans og Leasing, states that this initiative: "will affect the wrong people".

Today, it can be difficult for leasing companies to know whether law-abiding citizens or boundary-pushing insane drivers get behind the wheel of their cars. Therefore, for a long time, they have called for a better opportunity to investigate customers' finances and criminal history.

We must remove the so-called straw men

A huge problem is the so-called straw men who lease the cars to the insane drivers. According to the police, this method has a special connection to the gangs. Gang members lease cars through others, probably socially disadvantaged people with a poor economy.

Today, it is challenging to fight the straw man companies. They fabricate payslips that are hard for leasing companies to validate because they lack the necessary access to information such as the economy and criminal record.

Skatteministeriet will investigate the possibility of giving a limited group of leasing companies of motor vehicles access to eSkatData. This is an essential step in the right direction, as leasing companies with access to eSkatData can gain insight into whether a potential lessor has entered the correct information.