A used car salesman from Somerset cheated customers when he sold wrongly described cars, a court has been told.
Malvin Price (35) from Chilton Cantelo, was sentenced by Yeovil Magistrates after pleading guilty to two charges of selling "misdescribed" vehicles, Blackmore Vale reports.
He was ordered to pay a total of £4,250 in fines and damages including compensation of £1,200, a £50 victim surcharges and court costs of £2,000.
The court heard that Price, trading as Rhino Auto Care, of Chilton Cantelo, had sold two vehicles - a VW Caddy and a Citroen Xsara - in 2015.
In online adverts Price described both as having a new clutch, brakes and cambelt when none of these parts had been replaced on either of the vehicles.
Independent motor vehicle engineers confirmed that these parts in both cars were not new and could have presented a risk to the health and safety of the respective drivers.
In the case of the Citroen Xsara the engineer also concluded that the brakes were in a dangerous condition.
Price was unable to show that he had made any checks or had any systems in place to ensure that the advertising of these vehicles was correct or to prevent the supply of false or misdescribed vehicles.
The case was brought to court after complaints to Trading Standards.
> Used car dealer to stand trial for 'misleading and aggressive' sales tactics
Jeremy has been a journalist for 30 years, 20 of which have been in business-to-business automotive. He was a writer and news editor on AM-sister brand Fleet News for three years before setting up the AM website. For the last five years he has been Bauer B2B’s head of digital helping to manage the digital assets of AM, together with Fleet News, Commercial Fleet, Rail and Smart Transport.
Iceage - 21/11/2016 15:16
Easy pickings eh? VAG mis-described millions of vehicles and have yet to be prosecuted..... Maybe Yeovil Magistrates should be granted the VW 'mis-description' case, perhaps then the defrauded VW customers would receive some justice?