8:38 am, March 10, 2023
A dodgy car dealer has been banned from running any company for five years after he admitted to selling cars that had already been sold to someone else.
Jason Frost of Resto Barn Ltd in Nottinghamshire sold the same Mini Coopers to multiple customers during a campaign of fraud that lasted between February 2020 and March 2021.
He also promised parts and work that were never delivered, allowing him to scam clients, including one of his friends, out of a whopping £17,450.
The 47-year-old pleaded guilty to four charges of fraud and appeared for sentencing at Nottingham Crown Court yesterday (March 8).
The court heard that Frost’s fraudulent behaviour was triggered by the breakdown of his marriage, which left him in serious debt to his ex wife.
The Worksop Guardian reports that he resorted to illegal trading having previously been a ‘regular offender’ in his youth.
Daniel Scothern, mitigating, said his client had been left unable to cover the cost of outstanding restoration work and things had ‘snowballed’.
From there he became ‘trapped in a cycle of behaviour’ and things ‘got out of hand’
However, Scothern insisted that Frost had not set out to ‘fleece people out of thousands of pounds’ and said he was ‘deeply embarrassed and remorseful’.
It was also disclosed that since the offences took place he has refunded other customers around £3,000 but has not contacted victims related to the court case, on the advice of the police.
‘He has three previous convictions for 22 offences dating back to 1999, but nothing since,’ Scothern told the court.
‘He is not a career criminal and was leading a stable life before events and his mistakes over took him.’
After hearing all the evidence, Judge Nirmal Shant KC handed Frost a six-month prison sentence, suspended for two years. He was also banned from running his own business for five years.
A separate hearing, under the Proceeds of Crime Act, is also set to take place in court later this year.
