7:12 am, February 1, 2024
Trading Standards have issued a warning to rogue traders after a dodgy car dealer was jailed for selling a dangerous Toyota which was ‘rotten to its core’.
Car Dealer was at Swansea Crown Court last week to see Alan Lewis sent down for six months for selling the heavily corroded and ‘dangerous’ Yaris.
The judge issued a damning statement on the defendant’s character, accusing him of ‘not showing a shred of remorse’ for his actions.
The court also heard that the buyer of the vehicle – Dianne Carey, of Aberdare – had been driving it around for five months before the issues were discovered during an MOT.
Now, following the successful prosecution, Trading Standards have vowed to carry on targeting used car dealers.
A spokesman said that used cars remain the ‘most complained about trade sector’ and insisted that ‘unscrupulous businesses’ would not be tolerated.
Cen Phillips, cabinet member with responsibility for Trading Standards and Public Protection matters at Neath Port Talbot Council, which led the Lewis prosecution, said: ‘Trading Standards welcomes the sentence imposed on Alan Lewis, considering the seriousness of the offence and the defendants attitude to their compliance with the law.
‘Trading Standards takes the sale of unroadworthy and misdescribed cars very seriously.
‘Second hand car sales remain the most complained about trade sector and we hope that this sends the correct message to unscrupulous businesses.’
Since Lewis was sent to prison last week, Car Dealer has been sent images detailing the full extent of damage to the blue Yaris.
The pictures, which formed part of the prosecution case against the dealer, show the underside of the vehicle caked in rust with several corrosion holes.
Judge Geraint Walters KC also told the court that ‘determined attempts’ had been made to cover up the ‘dangerous aspects’ and ‘rotten parts’ of the car.
The latest warning comes after Car Dealer reported how Trading Standards are also clamping down on retailers posing as private sellers on Facebook.
Chris Hill, senior investigations officer for National Trading Standards, explained he had conducted a probe of more than 2,500 car adverts on Facebook in Wales and found that they had been posted by just 432 users.
Hill said one of those users had advertised some 90 cars during the six-month period they looked at and was ‘clearly a motor trader’. More than 100 of the users advertised more than 10 cars on the social media site.
Dealers must, by law, clearly label adverts as ‘trade’ so consumers know they have consumer rights – such as returning faulty cars or getting problems fixed.
