The owner of Britain’s only pink Ferrari has been left without an insurance payout nearly three years after the £120,000 supercar was sent flying into bushes in a crash, after her insurer found the car had failed its MOT just days before the collision and was not legally roadworthy at the time.
Lisa-Marie Brown, 45, who appeared on Channel 5’s Rich House Poor House, says she was badly injured and forced to stop working following the crash in Cardiff in August 2023. Footage of the collision shows her Ferrari travelling at between 30mph and 40mph when a second car approached from the opposite direction at a junction. As the lights changed to amber, Brown continued straight on while the other vehicle entered a yellow box junction to turn right. Her supercar can then be seen veering sharply off the road into nearby greenery, with onlookers rushing to the scene in the aftermath.
Speaking to The Sun, Brown said: “It was the craziest thing that ever happened in my life. I was knocked out for a few seconds and came round and I just thought ‘oh my god, what happened, don’t die’.” She said she was left with whiplash and described the past three years as “incredibly upsetting,” adding: “My life has been on hold for the past three years.” Brown said she had “worked really hard” to afford the car and now fears being left to cover the cost of repairs herself, though a local Cardiff mechanic has offered to help.
However, insurer Admiral said it could not pay out on the claim due to the condition of the vehicle at the time of the crash. In a statement, a spokeswoman for the company said: “Rejecting a claim is not a decision we take lightly, however the reason we have declined Ms Brown’s claim is because her car had failed an MOT and was not roadworthy on 8th August 2023, when the collision occurred.”
According to Admiral, the Ferrari had failed an MOT test five days earlier, on 3 August 2023, due to a major defect involving fluid leaking from the rear shock absorber — a fault the company said required immediate repair but was not addressed. An independent assessor instructed by Admiral concluded that Brown would have been made aware of the defect, which remained unrectified. The insurer said Brown continued to drive the car, covering 128 miles in the five days between the failed MOT and the collision, and that at the time of the crash she was not travelling to an MOT centre for repairs or a retest. “Ms Brown has advised in a signed statement that she was travelling to her mother’s house when the collision happened,” the spokeswoman said.
Admiral said the requirement for a vehicle to have a valid MOT and be roadworthy was fundamental, adding: “Not doing so is dangerous and could put the driver and other road users at risk. As the vehicle was not legal for road use due to the major defect found in the MOT inspection five days prior to the collision, we are unable to pay Ms Brown’s claim.” The company confirmed Brown had referred the decision to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which reviewed her five complaint points and upheld Admiral’s rejection. “Admiral has refused indemnity for the reasons given above, so irrespective of the liability position regarding who was at fault for the accident, Admiral will not be paying Ms Brown’s claim,” the spokeswoman said.
Brown, who is friends with Katie Price, launched the pink Ferrari onto Cardiff’s streets in 2019 as part of a campaign to inspire young women into business and motoring. She is founder and managing director of Abercynon-based Pinkspiration, which runs mentoring and training projects for women, alongside a valet service and coffee shop. Speaking to the Daily Mail at the time of the car’s launch, she said: “We thought it would be a quirky way to launch the car and to link it in training and upskilling young people. I’d say around 70 per cent of people liked it, but 30 per cent were not too keen, but many women who said they liked it said they felt inspired.”
