8:19 am, January 18, 2023
A dodgy car dealer has been handed a community order after tricking an unsuspecting customer into buying an insurance write-off.
Pryzemyslaw Solecki scammed a customer in Sedgley, West Midlands, out of £2,650 by advertising an unlawful vehicle on Facebook.
Trading under the name, South Western Car Sales, the Bristol-based dealer claimed the car was ‘like new with no hidden issues’.
However, it later turned out the vehicle had previously been an insurance write-off and was ex-private hire.
To make matters worse, when the victim tried to claim a refund, Solecki fraudulently claimed that by signing an invoice, the customer had accepted the car was a both trade sale and a non-running vehicle.
The incident sparked an investigation by Dudley’s Council’s trading standards team which has now led a prosecution against Solecki.
The team’s investigation found that the car had been subject to shoddy repair work, including the refitting of the broken headlight assembly.
Investigators also described the defendant as ‘extremely misleading’ when advertising the car.
Appearing at Dudley Magistrates’ Court, he admitted a single count of fraud and was ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid community work.
He was also told to pay £1,500 towards prosecution costs as well as a victim surcharge of £114.
Reacting to the sentence, councillor Ian Bevan, cabinet member responsible for trading standards at Dudley Council, said: ‘This prosecution shows that we will not tolerate traders that try to evade their responsibilities by claiming a trade sale to be a private sale.
‘Online car sales rose in popularity through the pandemic. Car traders must describe vehicles accurately and fairly but consumers also need to be extremely cautious about buying vehicles in this way.’
Main image: Dudley combined Crown and Magistrates Courts (PA Images)
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