Dudley car dealership and director get big court bill for selling dangerous car bought at auction
A Dudley car dealership and its director have been handed a court bill of more than £22,000 after pleading guilty to selling a dangerous and unroadworthy vehicle.
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Ali Mohammed, director of Dynamic Car Sales Ltd, Sedgley Road, Dudley, appeared before Dudley Magistrates Court on June 14.
The court heard that he had sold a Ford Mondeo for £2,500 to an unsuspecting customer from Lower Gornal in July of last year.
It was not until the customer took the car for a service in November that they found the extent of corrosion underneath the vehicle, which was later assessed as “likely to result in the imminent potential failure of the rear suspension".
The sale was reported to Dudley Council’s trading standards, which investigated the matter and consulted with a vehicle examiner.
The examiner reported that “the degree of excessive corrosion and deterioration on the underside units and components is consistent with long-term degeneration over a prolonged period of time” and that the “defects were existing at the time of sale".
Dynamic Car Sales Ltd had bought the vehicle from an auction for £1,050 around two weeks before selling it.
The business had not carried out any pre-delivery inspection checks on the car during this time.
The court handed Mohammed a fine of £10,000 and Dynamic Car Sales Ltd a fine of £2,500, together with a victim surcharge of £2,000.
It also awarded the consumer full compensation of £2,576, awarded Dudley Council full costs of £5,069 and allowed for the scrapping of the vehicle.
Dr Mayada Abuaffan, director of public health at the local authority, said: "This prosecution shows that Dudley Trading Standards will not tolerate traders that ignore their responsibilities to ensure what they sell is safe.
"Car traders must take reasonable precautions to check the vehicles are safe before they display them for sale. Relying on auction house checks and MOT test results does not amount to taking reasonable precautions.
"Dudley Trading Standards will not hesitate to investigate complaints where consumers have been misled or where they have been sold a dangerous vehicle."
