Dealer escapes jail after selling Mini welded together from four different cars

A dealer has avoided jail after admitting at crown court selling dangerous vehicles, including a Mini Cooper welded together from four different models.

The ‘cut and shut’ Mini was even different colours, with red paint showing inside the doorframes and pink on the rest of the bodywork, reports the Birmingham Mail.

Other cars were wrongly sold with MoT certificates obtained illegally.

Another with 184,000 miles on the clock was advertised as having done just 89,600.

Harsikander Dhillon, of Blackroot Road, Sutton Coldfield , was responsible for buying eight cars and selling them on at inflated prices, Leicester Crown Court heard.

The 34-year-old director of Granth Cars in Belgrave, Leicester, admitted eight counts of engaging in a misleading commercial practice.

His accomplice, salesman Barry Porter (54), of Limetree Grove, Loughborough, pleaded guilty to seven charges.

The men were spared immediate jail terms because Dhillon had put £24,550 in a bank account to refund all eight customers, and the pair had agreed to pay £15,000 in court costs.

Dhillon was given an eight-month suspended sentence and ordered to perform 200 hours of unpaid work.

Porter was given a six-month suspended term and 160 hours of unpaid work.

The two men were investigated by trading standards after 11 complaints were made within six months of them going into business together in May 2015, the court heard.

Judge, recorder Timothy Walker, said the Mini Cooper was “extremely dangerous” and it was impossible the pair did not know it had been welded together.

“I’ve seen the photographs of the Mini and I don’t accept you didn’t know its condition,” he told them.

“The paintwork didn’t match.

“You were acting with a disregard for your customers that was quite astounding.

“You were greedy.

“It must have become apparent you were acting unlawfully, but it better suited you to continue to act unlawfully.

“It plainly crosses the custody threshold.”

Cameron Crowe, defending Dhillon, said at an earlier hearing that his client “relied on the expertise of others who were supposed experts and he ultimately failed to take the necessary steps to rectify further verification”.

Kevin Barry, for Porter, said of his client: “He isn’t a mechanic. He did what he was told.”