Cam belt snapped

Cripes, that sounds orrible. How old is it?
Depends on the engine, but generally when a cambelt snaps it can cause pistons to hit valves that havent closed, and break other associated components in connection with the camshaft. It will need to be inspected, to establish what damage may have occured.

Damn. Why the hell did the guy try and start it?

As ridders said, on interference engines there's a whole lot of damage that can occur.
They may swap out the engine for a reconn'd one.

Gutting experience. I hope Jeep UK do the necessary

2020 car 31K, it better not be a used engine! will call customer service in a bit and see whats what.

soooo,
"Customer services": first up the number doesn't work yu need to use the 0800number, all they do is transfer you to Albania and then all they will do is call the RAC (which I ended up doing myself)

RAC: tell them the car needs recovering and they send a patrol not a flat bed. they then say they will only recover the car to the nearest dealer or max 38 miles. I had already contacted the local dealer and they won't take it as too busy. I had arranged where I bought it but that is 61 miles away, so off they went again.

Other Dealer: Called jeep and told them about this, they called the local dealer and told them they ARE taking it. They won't give me a car as they don't have anything and maybe they'll give me a fiat 500. Not good enough.

So there we are. Forget the jeep recovery, it's useless, almost as useless at their customer service. Today i have to phone the RAC again and try and get them to pick it up and arrange a hire car that Jeep may pay for.

Sorry to hear that. It doesn't sound good for your engine. Did you buy the car from a main dealer?

Did you get a Jeep loaner in the end? Any news on the engine?

Got a new rene etorque until mine os looked at. Should be investigating next week.

An update! After investigation, the cam belt had not snapped, rather the pulley had come loose which allowed the timing to shift with pretty much the same result.
It's a new engine folks! Get your mechanic to retorque the pulleys at service.

Sounds like a right ballache, but your actual dealer is stepping up?

Yes. The dealer I bought it from has stepped up bit they are not my local dealer.

new engine on order. Fiat want the old one back as a complete unit to autopsy. Apparently have only seen a cam pulley come loose once before.