ALERT: Sheffield holidaymakers warned over nasty surprise waiting at home in car rental scam

Dodgy car rental firms are waiting until many tourists get back home to the UK and then sending out a bill for a damaged car lock.

It is more than a year since the Competition and Markets Authority brought in new rules to ensure car hire comparison and broker websites have “transparent drive-away pricing” but the company said many of these regulations are being flouted.

"Tactics such as pressure selling expensive add-on insurance is well known, but this latest ploy of billing for door lock damage is out of the blue. Customers will need to have their wits about them to avoid being ripped off.”

Zest warned door locks are not covered by most standard excess protection policies and dodgy car rental companies take advantage of this.

Unscrupulous firms will assure you that the locks were fine before you hired the car.