AM sister title Parker’s has uncovered an error in scrappage scheme orders which has seen double counting of orders accounting for up to 50,000 cars.

The Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS), which publishes the number of scrappage orders, claimed that 260,000 orders had been made with the £2000 discount until November 6.

However, many orders using the incentive have actually been counted twice while orders from car buyers that later changed their minds have not been removed from the database.

At the same time anyone that ordered a new car but then found their old car was not eligible to trade were also not removed.

Car buyers that also called dealers to modify the car they ordered, such as a request for a sunroof, were counted twice.

BIS blamed a hasty introduction of the scheme and human error for the mistakes, that could have resulted in non-existent scrappage orders well into five figures.

For the full story visit www.parkers.co.uk.