A premium car dealer stands accused of conning five customers out of £147,500 after offering his customers deals that were “too good to be true”.

North Wales car dealer Gwyn Meirion Roberts, who ran Menai Vehicle Solutions in Bangor, took cash and part-exchange vehicles from customers for vehicles that never materialised, a jury sitting at Caernarfon crown court heard on the first day of his trial today (January 8).

Roberts (50), of Dolgoed, Llandudno Junction, stands accused of 24 counts of fraud and one of fraudulent trading relating to his business, the North Wales Daily Post reported.

Prosecuting barrister Matthew Corbett-Jones said Roberts had set up the business in 2008, but added that cash and the part-exchange vehicles had been taken in order to prop up the ailing business.

Jones said that customers had expected to receive new vehicles but the deals they were offered by Roberts had been “too good to be true”, adding that "he himself stood to lose substantial amounts of cash on these deals”.

Jones said that the defendant had manufactured “absurd deals he could not honour”.

Following his arrest Roberts told police that he intended to honour all the deals he had struck and claimed to be incompetent rather than dishonest, the Daily Post reported.

He denies all the allegations against him.

The trial continues.