Meet the car-loving postman who exposed 'PPI 2.0'

Postman Andrew Wrench likes his cars - so much so that in over 40 years of driving he reckons he has owned more than 30 of them.

But when the Stoke-on-Trent father of one snapped up a sporty Audi TT and a BMW convertible on finance a few years ago, little did he realise he had embarked on a journey that would lead to an almighty reckoning for the UK's lending industry.

'I never buy cars on finance,' he tells MailOnline. 'I've had Porsches, Mercedes, a Triumph Stag with the V8 three-litre - and I've always paid cash.'

Mr Wrench, 60, is one of the unlikely architects of a court case that sent Britain's car finance firms into a spiral after he discovered the FirstRand Bank lending agreements included 'secret' commission payments to the dealerships selling the motors.

He took his lender to county court, hoping to have the commission returned - but his case was merged with two others and elevated to Britain's top appeal court, with seismic consequences on a scale not seen since the PPI scandal of the 2000s.

At the Court of Appeal, Lady Justice Andrews and Lords Justices Birss and Edis ruled Mr Wrench and his fellow car buyers had not made a truly informed decision on finance because they did not know their dealership was being paid for the deal.

Just like that, the borrowing market imploded: Shares in FirstRand and Close Brothers, the other lender implicated in the judgement, tumbled.

Elsewhere, Lloyds set aside millions for compensation; BMW and Honda halted new car deliveries; other dealerships froze purchases as they hurriedly rewrote credit agreements to mention commission.

The consequences could be huge for the lending market - with between 80 and 90 per cent of new UK car purchases made on credit. The Finance and Leasing Association says its members issued £52bn of car loans last year.

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But experts say the judgment could have even wider consequences for the borrowing market as a whole if loans, credit cards and even mortgages are sold by brokers who receive commission payments in return. 

And the Financial Conduct Authority is widely expected to expand its investigation into commission to include all 'secret' payments after it began probing agreements that saw dealers paid a bonus directly linked to the interest rates they set on loans.

Analysts at RBC say that if a compensation scheme is launched, it could cost lenders £23bn - comparable to the £38bn paid out for PPI. Redress could range from £400 to £1,100 depending on the type of commission paid, the Financial Times reports. 

Quite by accident, Mr Wrench has become a unofficial consumer champion - one who helped bring about a colossal moment of judgement for Britain's lenders. 

But the former retail manager, who now delivers parcels for Royal Mail, just wanted to make sure he was getting a fair deal.

'I didn't expect this impact,' he said. 'It's been a bit of a whirlwind. 

'Did I do it for the money? No. I did it for the principle of it.

'My wife's colleagues have gottoned on and see my name, and asked, "Is this your Andy? Do you realise what he's done to the market?"

'It's not me, personally. I haven't done anything as a vendetta or anything to the market.

'But the cat's out the bag and the truth has been found out.' 

Mr Wrench is described as a 'postman with a penchant for fast cars' in the judgment - a characterisation he admits he laughed at when he read it for the first time. (He maintains he is a cautious driver.)

On May 23 2015 he snapped up a used Audi TT Quattro Sport - a special edition of the coupe in two-tone red and black paint that can hit 60mph in less than six seconds - for which he put down a £3,000 deposit against the £8,995 price.

The dealership, Fast Lane Motors in Stoke, offered him a deal at £175 per month over four years for the remaining £5,000 to pay on the car, which he purchased for his partner Louise shortly after her mother passed away.

'I just happened to be walking past at the time, saw it, took a picture, went in and paid a small deposit to hold it of £50. I came home, showed her it and her eyes just sort of lit up,' he recalls.

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The sale was 'quick', he remembers: 'The salesman came back with the paperwork and it was quite swift: bang, bang, bang, four signatures required and away you go.'

Less than two years later, he came across a lustrous blue BMW 3 Series hard-top convertible coupe with a throaty 2.5litre engine. This one would be for him.

He contacted the dealership, TT Sports and Prestige, and hopped on the train to Derby on March 13 2017. 

The salesman met him at the train station in the car itself - a clever sales pitch, Mr Wrench notes - and he bought the car that day, putting down £1,000 against the £9,750 price and funding the rest of the purchase with another credit agreement.

He remembers: 'We went back to the place, sat down, chewed over the cod as you do, and then the bottom line, sign here, £220 a month and you can drive it away today. Wow!'

Mr Wrench borrowed the money for the Audi at an APR of 19.3 per cent and the BMW at a APR of 10.2 per cent. Both were four year agreements. 

In each cases, the court said Mr Wrench had been told by the dealerships they would get him 'the best rate from their panel of lenders'.

But in reality, Mr Wrench had unknowingly helped the dealers to make an extra win on his car sale when he agreed to finance the purchases through MotoNovo - which lent £3.9billion to Brits in the year to June 2024.

Fast Lane was paid £179.85 for the Audi loan, while TT Sports and Prestige was paid a total of £408.98 for the BMW. Of that, £299.60 was 'difference in charge' commission - a now outlawed bonus that was directly linked to the interest rate.

The postman was completely unaware he was doing the dealerships an extra favour. He admits that he did not read the lengthy terms of the finance agreements from beginning to end - because, frankly, who does?

'If anybody says different, they'd be lying,' he says. 'There are tens of thousands of people who do this every year.'

He says he has read comments on news articles about the ruling that call him an 'idiot' and a 'clown' for not reading the agreement from cover to cover.

But the Court of Appeal actually sides with him on this - noting that lenders are almost certainly aware there is a 'negligible' chance of consumers reading the terms from top to bottom. 

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In fact, the judges said, FirstRand actively counted on it, hiding the reference to a commission in a 'carefully concealed sub-clause' of the finance agreement under a heading called 'General' - a ruse they called 'an attempt to divert attention from it'. 

It was only when, last year, he read over the contract for a Range Rover he bought on finance in 2019 that he spotted a reference to commission payments. He then pulled out the agreements for the BMW and the Audi - and realised he had been had.

With a legal team including Jamal Ahmed, of Bradford's Cooper Hall Solicitors, barrister Greg Lawton, and Consumer Rights Solicitors, he set his legal action in motion. 

'I've always thought, having owned 30-odd cars over 40-odd years, is that when you buy a car, whether it's a dealership or a private independent dealer, those cars are on the forecourt for a markup,' Mr Wrench said.

'It was about trust. I'm a very trusting person. But dealerships push the finance because it's better for them than money in the bank.

'I had always thought up to this point the interest MotoNovo makes was sufficient for them and the markup for the dealership goes in their bank.

'But knowing this now leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.'

The postman's case was first heard at the county court in Stoke-on-Trent in July last year. He won - but FirstRand overturned the ruling on appeal before Mr Wrench went on to challenge the decision at the country's top appeal court.

His case was then merged with other commission lawsuits brought by student nurse Amy Hopcraft and factory supervisor Marcus Johnson because of their similarities.

The Court of Appeal ultimately ruled FirstRand and Close Brothers, the other lender in the case, should pay the commission back. 

Mr Wrench now faces further court proceedings on the redress he could claim for both the Audi and the BMW, as well as the Range Rover he subsequently bought on finance but did not form part of the case.

The Supreme Court may also hear a further appeal from FirstRand and Close Brothers - but the Court of Appeal has directly moved to block further hearings, as reported by Politico, calling any grounds for a rethink 'unarguable'.

Mr Wrench could be in line for anything from a few thousand pounds to the full value of the cars if the court grants him full rescission - nullifying the contracts altogether.

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Any money he does get will fund his 16-year-old son Ethan's first car, Mr Wrench said, along his law degree - while glibly noting the Labour government's plan to hike tuition fees to £9,535, announced earlier this week.

'We've been saving money for Ethan since he was born, so the money is just something we don't need,' he says.

'If it's a small fee it'll go to charity, and if it's a larger fee it will go to our son's future. That's the way I roll, the way I work, and I always have done. 

'People that know me know this was not for financial gain. It's the principle, it's accountability, their deceitfulness and dishonesty. I am very proud.'

The battle of three plucky ordinary Brits taking on the fat cats - and not just winning, but beating the system altogether? It could almost be a film.

Close Brothers has suspended new car loans. Lloyds' Black Horse lending division has stymied commission payments. MotoNovo, meanwhile, is back in business in giving out loans. 

For Andrew Wrench, he just wants car dealers to clean their act up: that when they tell customers they'll work to get them the 'best deal', they mean it.

Mr Wrench continues: 'When I started this I had thought: "Am I going to lose?" Will they say, go away little postie from Stoke-on-Trent, and the other two, a student nurse and a supervisor? We're all just normal human beings that paid our way in life.

'It's very sad to know that for many, many years this has been going on - but now it's going to stop, and I've been one of those parties that have been responsible for that.'