A Bournemouth car dealer has been prosecuted and ordered to pay over £5000 by a court, after he sold a ‘clocked’ van to a Dorchester customer.
On 9 August 2018, at Poole Magistrates’ Court, Ian Loder, 61, of Bournemouth pleaded guilty to two offences under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008. He had misled a customer about the previous mileage of a VW Transporter Van which he sold from his business at 89 Castle Lane East in Bournemouth.
The court ordered Mr Loder to pay the customer £3500 compensation, fines of £500 and another £1030 in other costs.
In April 2017 the victim was looking to find a van to convert into a camper van. He saw an advert on eBay for one that had supposedly travelled 89,000 miles. No hint of a problem with the mileage was given by the defendant until at the time the customer paid he wrote on the invoice “Not Warranted Mileage Incorrect”. No explanation was given for this. The customer thought that just referred to the fact that at the time of the sale it had travelled 91,000 miles.
Later when things began to go wrong with the vehicle, it came to light that the van had actually travelled more than 243,000 miles. The customer would never have considered buying the van had he known the true mileage.
In mitigation, Mr Loder’s legal representative told the court that he had been particularly unwell at the time and as a result he was no longer in business.
Richard Herringshaw, Principal Trading Standards Officer with Dorset County Council said: “The sale of second hand vehicles is one of the largest areas of concern for trading standards. Businesses need to make sure that they take steps to check that their vehicles are described accurately.”
“Consumers can contact the Citizens Advice Consumer Service on 03454 04 05 06 to get advice and complain about a car they have bought from a trader.”