Dealer fined after woman's £14k Audi 'dream car' found with crash damage
A used car dealership and its boss have been ordered to pay over £33,000 after turning a woman’s “dream car” into a nightmare.
Parkside Motors admitted lying about the condition of the Audi A5 S line, supplying an unsafe product and telling the customer she was not entitled to a full refund.
The white 62-Reg version of the sought-after car with black roof was described in an Autotrader advert as being in “great condition” and having “excellent bodywork”.
Teresa Piper, a 52-year-old barber from Fordhouses, was elated by the £14,300 sale price since she had spent over a year saving until she had a £15,000 budget.
When she rang Parkside Motors in Edgware, she was told by a saleswoman that it was a “beautiful” car, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.
Ms Piper put down a £200 deposit on the Audi over the phone and paid a further £14,100 in cash for it on June 26 2017 after travelling to the trader’s premises and had been assured that the car had not been in a crash.
She quickly discovered one of the tyres needed pumping up twice a day and was warned by a friend who examined the car that it had been in a front end collision with parts held together by cable ties.
“She had been misled by the advert because the vehicle was in an unsafe and dangerous condition at the point of sale,” said Mr Lee Marlew, prosecuting on behalf of Wolverhampton Trading Standards Department.
An independent vehicle examiner found the car had been repaired in a “half hearted and generally shoddy manner” after being involved in a “hefty” collision while the front nearside road wheel and tyre made a “lethal combination”.
Mr Joel Smith, defending Parkside Motors and its sole director Gokhan Kismar, said the saleswoman no longer worked for the company which pleaded guilty to giving false information, supplying a car with an unsafe wheel and tyre combination and wrongly telling Ms Piper she was not entitled to a full refund.
The final charge was also admitted by 38-year-old director Kismar, from The Campions, Borehamwood.
The company was fined £20,400 with £7,000 costs while Kismar was ordered to pay a £1,275 fine, £3,500 costs and £998 compensation to Ms Piper who has since bought herself an 11-year-old Peugeot.
She said after the case: “The Audi was my dream car but that was ruined by the way I was treated. It was heartbreaking.”
