9:34 am, November 15, 2024
The boss of a Northern Ireland used car dealership caught up in a scandal after a court order his company to repay almost £24,000 to a couple who bought the ‘wrong’ caravan has said he’ll return their money as soon as the tourer is sold.
Adrian Carron, director of Braeside Car Sales, had pledged to repay the £23,972.21 to Sophie Davidson and Michael Law, but first he has to resell the caravan at the heart of the issue, reported by Car Dealer yesterday.
According to The Impartial Reporter, Carron said he’d been in regular contact with the couple but found it hard to accept that the caravan he originally took a video of to send to them and the actual caravan that the couple collected and subsequently returned were two different models.
‘It was exactly the same caravan,’ Carron said when asked about the difference between them. ‘I don’t understand that at all. I don’t understand how they don’t match up – It’s a 720UKFE, there’s no difference in any of the caravans, they are all the same.’
It was reported that there were several differences between the two caravans, including a different microwave, shower head and mattress. There was also a sign on the front of the caravan for another business.
When pressed on the irregularities, Carron said: ‘They know the microwave was replaced. He arrived about 10am in the morning, I met him at the door and he knew and I showed him the boys were working out the back. I told him before he even left there was a brand-new microwave fitted.
‘When they come into us we, do a full service on them to make sure everything is working.’
Despite Carron’s claims, the buyers felt they had been misled and the caravan mis-sold, after they spent their ‘life savings’ on the vehicle.
Last month a judgement was made in the High Court in Belfast ordering Braeside Car Sales to repay the pair the entire £23,972.21.
Carron said he told the customers they will get their money back once he has sold on the caravan. Trading Standards Northern Ireland and the High Court have both ordered the dealer to repay the Aberdeenshire couple, but the dates for this repayment have passed.
Carron said he lost three potential sales on the caravan, as other customers wanted to buy it.
‘There’s never an issue where we never going to pay it back,’ he said, and claimed he has made Trading Standards aware of the plan to repay the couple. He did not say anything further on the court judgement.
He concluded by saying that the issues raised by the couple could have been fixed easily but ‘they didn’t give us the chance to do that’.
‘Everything could have been easily rectified but we weren’t given that choice.’
