I just want to weigh in about the hire car thing. I am not sure how many other U.K. citizens will agree but it is extremely uncommon in the U.K. to hire a car, especially if you have 2 cars sitting on your driveway. I can only think of 1 time in my lifetime when my family has hired a car in the U.K. and it was to go to the airport to save on parking costs before a holiday.
I think either, this is poor reporting by MSM and that the car is PCP/HP (for Americans basically this is leasing a car where the finance company own it and you rent it for a long period of time - years, then you have the option to buy it or trade it in).
Or shows a very high level of premeditation.
JMO, MOO etc