Up to £16,000 worth of cars have had to be written off after a vehicle ploughed into the forecourt of a second hand dealership on the Helston to Falmouth road.

Slam Aslam, of Autotrend at Edgcumbe, is now facing a hefty insurance claim that he predicts will have serious consequences for his business.

Mr Aslam has been left “jumping” as a result of the incident, which took place during a wet commute last Thursday at around 5.40pm.

Police confirmed that the driver of an X-type Jaguar collided with seven cars.

Describing his first reaction as one of “devastation and shock,” Mr Aslam told the Packet this week: “He’s written off seven cars – total write offs. Business is difficult for everyone in every walk of life, so to be faced with this… It is pretty devastating.

“The forecourt is like a scrap yard with all these damaged cars. It will affect my business considerably.”

Among the vehicles written off were a Chevrolet, a Honda, a Mitsubishi, a Ford, two Volkswagens and a Citroen.

Mr Aslam, who has owned the business for 11 years, said he had been warned by his insurance company that it was likely to take “some time” to finalise the matter and for him to get any money back.

He added: “The insurance company will never give us what the cars are worth. I will be out of pocket considerably.”

However, he feels he is lucky to have escaped with his life – just ten minutes earlier and he would have been standing on the forecourt when the Jaguar hit.

“I walk in front of those cars to get to the lay-by [where I park]. If I’d left here ten minutes after I would have been wiped out along with the cars,” he said.

Mr Aslam described it as an “extremely dangerous road”, with a number of lives lost along that stretch.

“It needs some sort of calming – maybe a camera or ‘slow down’ flashing lights.

“There’s a 50mph speed limit here and I’ve seen motorbikes coming past here at 100mph sometimes. There is a straight road and a three-lane carriageway [just before] you accelerate up, and it narrows off when you approach the forecourt,” he said.

There is no suggestion that speed was a factor in last Thursday’s collision, however.