9:35 am, January 27, 2014
A CAR dealer who closed his business and left angry customers demanding refunds has allegedly been found trading from another site under a new name.
Following an investigation by the Daily Echo in Southampton, customers confronted staff at Fort Wallington Car Sales in Hampshire over issues including faulty vehicles and cheques that had allegedly bounced.
With journalists from the Echo also on site, the frustrated customers received a promise from owner Stan Rudgley that their money would be repaid.
The saga reportedly began when Woolston Car Supermarket in Southampton suddenly closed its doors two weeks ago, and failed to inform customers of its move or provide a forwarding address.
The company had already been flooded with complaints made by customers attempting to claim back hundreds of pounds in compensation. This in turn led to trading standards officers investigating the firm.
A spokesman from Southampton’s trading standards office confirmed they were investigating more than 20 complaints.
Eventually, the complainants were supplied with refund cheques, but these were said to have bounced. And when customers returned to the showroom, they discovered the company had closed down and disappeared along with a several cars left for repairs.
Rudgley is said to have moved moved his operation 12 miles away, setting up a new showroom in Fareham under the name of Fort Wallington Car Sales.
According to the Daily Echo, when Rudgley was once again confronted by former customers, he blamed the problems on colleagues who he said, no longer worked with him.
The Daily Echo revealed that 40-year-old Richard David John Burbage, who had connections with Woolston Car Supermarket, owes more than $11 million to hundreds of customers in Australia after his online dealership We Buy Any Car – a copy of the British online car seller – collapsed down under.
Burbage has since been banned from working as a director in Australia for ten years and Rudgley said he had since cut all ties with him.
Rudgley admitted to the newspaper that there had been problems with his Southampton dealership but said he hoped to start again at his new site in Fareham.
He told the Daily Echo: ‘I am trying to run my business straight and not how it was run in Woolston by managers and sales staff.
‘I’m now committed here to running things 100 per cent straight down the line.’
Rudgley said he would pay back the money he owed to his customers.
