11:07 am, March 7, 2014
THE Daily Echo newspaper in Southampton has published another instalment in its long-running investigation into the activities of a pair of controversial South Coast car dealers.
In a report in today’s edition, the paper reports that Stan Rudgley and Richard Burbage ‘have resurfaced after closing Hampshire dealerships following fury over cars they were selling’.
Mr Burbage has been connected to Woolston Car Supermarket in Southampton, which shut abruptly in January after receiving increasing numbers of complaints. And both Mr Rudgley and Mr Burbage were reportedly connected to another firm at the same site in Hazel Road, Woolston, called Hampshire Vehicle Sales.
The Echo also reports that Mr Burbage and his wife Lorraine, who live in Botley, ‘both owe more than 11 million Australian dollars to hundreds of people after the demise of a firm they owned … in Australia’.
Senior reporter Patrick Knox says Mr Rudgley and Mr Burbage are now involved in a new online car dealership, Valley Cars, based in Botley.
And a trading standards official is quoted as saying: ‘This is a complex case that has impacted upon many people.’
The cases of more than 60 customers are currently being investigated, the Echo reports.
