10:56 am, October 10, 2016
THE owner of Coventry’s Prestige Auto Lounge has been told that he must trade fairly or he may face a spell in prison.
Trading Standards received a number of complaints about the business, and as a result the company’s director David Nwachukwu Ilukwe was brought before Coventry County Court on September 29th.
In court he signed an undertaking to trade fairly, both on his own behalf and for the two companies for which he holds a directorship – Prestige Autohaus Ltd and Prestige Motoring World Ltd (trading as Coventry Car Mart, Coventry Auto Lounge and Prestige Auto Lounge).
The undertaking states that Ilukwe and the two companies must not deny consumers their statutory rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, sell vehicles in an unroadworthy condition, falsely describe vehicles as having full service histories when they do not, make false statements as to the specification of a motor vehicle and fail to respond in a timely fashion to telephone calls, emails or other correspondence from consumers regarding faulty vehicles.
Ilukwe agreed to publish the undertaking on his website and to send all his staff on a training course approved by Warwickshire Trading Standards. A breach of the undertaking would be classified as a contempt of court and could lead to a prison sentence for Ilukwe and a fine for the companies.
Trading Standards says it will continue to monitor the business and its director to ensure they comply with the terms of the undertaking.
John Horner, Warwickshire county councillor and portfolio holder for community safety, said: ‘Trading Standards receives more complaints about faulty vehicles than about anything else and is constantly working with car dealers to help them comply with the law.
‘However, there are cases where advice and support is not heeded and enforcement action has to be taken to protect consumers.
‘Trading Standards will continue to monitor this business to ensure that it is complying with the law and will not hesitate to take action if they breach the undertaking.’
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