Oldham car dealer fined after selling car with modified mileage

A car dealer has been told to pay more than £14,000 after selling a car with it's mileage modified.

Oldham Council’s Trading Standards Department launched an investigation after receiving a complaint from a customer who had bought an Audi Q7 and later discovered a discrepancy over the mileage.

During the investigation mileage records were obtained from a range of sources which showed that the car’s mileage had dropped by at least 30,000 miles.

Oldham-based S Cars then bought the vehicle at an auction and sold it on without making the buyer aware.

During a two-day trial, which started on March 4 at Tameside Magistrates’ Court, evidence was presented which showed that the mileage discrepancy was on the car auction listing seen by S Cars before they purchased the vehicle.

This auction listing also included a list of previous MOT mileage readings showing the drop in the vehicle’s mileage.

S Cars did not mention this mileage discrepancy in their online advert or when they sold the car on to the customer.

The mileage had been advertised as warranted by the auction house.

This meant that S Cars had seven days to make enquiries into the mileage and return the vehicle to the auctioneer for a refund if they wished.

The court found S Cars Limited and Sanjib Saggar, aged 49, of Queen Anne Garage, Church Road, Shaw guilty of four offences under the Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations 2008 and the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.

This is the second time Saggar has been prosecuted by Oldham Council for misleading customers.

The magistrates also ruled that by advertising and selling the vehicle without failing to disclose the mileage discrepancy, or investigate it further, S Cars had not carried out any due diligence despite previously receiving advice on checking mileages from trading standards.

The defendants were ordered to pay a £4,000 fine, £6,401.54 costs, £4,045 in compensation as well as a victim surcharge of £170.

Councillor Ateeque Ur Rehman, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhood Services, said: “Saggar continues to pass himself off as an honest car salesman, but we’ve caught him out yet again.

“He could easily have returned the car and got his money back, but he decided to sell it on and deceive an honest member of the public.

“Hopefully, his dishonest practices have now reached the end of the road.”

The director of S Cars LTD, Sanjib Saggar, has released a statement in response:

“We are very disappointed that the magistrates decided to rule against us, as due to circumstances beyond our control, we weren’t able to present all of the evidence on the day.

“When we bought this vehicle from a car auction it was sold to us with warranted mileage and a DVSA (Driver and Vehicles Standards Agency) discrepancy on the MOT history, which would have been pointed out to the customer at the point of sale.

“When we did the calculations it seemed to have been caused by the mileage being calculated in kilometres rather than miles at the point of the discrepency and when converted back it seemed to marry up with what the mileage should be.

“In relation to the mileage being tampered with, it was never the prosecution’s case that I tampered with the mileage and the discrepancy was there before I purchased the vehicle.

“We did everything necessary at the time and went on to sell the vehicle in good faith.

 “We will now be lodging a notice of appeal as we believe this conviction is unsound.”

Use the DVLA’s free online vehicle information checker (https://www.gov.uk/get-vehicle-information-from-dvla) to make sure what the seller tells you matches the DVLA’s records.

Further advice on your consumer rights can be found by calling freephone 0808 223 1133 or visiting: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/

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