9:07 am, March 10, 2025
A car dealership which ignored a council enforcement notice in order to keep trading illegally has been ordered to pay out more than £8,000.
DSG Car Sales Ltd began trading without the proper planning permission before applying for retrospective consent in 2021.
The firm, based out of Itchen Business Park in Southampton, was eventually given the green light to stay at the site but only if certain conditions were met.
Following concerns from locals, planners granted permission with extra limits on the the size of vehicles used to deliver cars to the site.
Permission was given on a one-year rolling basis to ensure that the business stuck to the rules, ahead of a review.
However, when the firm re-applied in 2022, Southampton City Council was shown evidence that DSG had breached the measures on several occasions – with permission withdrawn as a result.
Directors were advised that the outfit had until November of that year to stop using the premises for car sales, or face an enforcement notice.
However, the Southern Daily Echo reports that bosses refused to engage with the council and appealed both the planning decision and the enforcement notice.
Both appeals were eventually rejected in January of last year and DSG were given four months to stop using the site.
Despite this, when inspectors visited five months later, they found that the business was still selling cars from the plot, constituting a breach of the law.
As a result, the firm has now found itself hauled up before Southampton Magistrates’ Court.
Directors, Geralt and Sheridan Xhebexhia, entered a guilty plea on behalf of the company on February 20.
DSG has now been fined £5,200, and ordered to pay costs of £977, as well as a £2,000 victim surcharge, taking the total cost to £8,177.
