This was a common complaint to Trading Standards. A private seller of their car would advertise in a newspaper or specialist publication and be telephoned by someone offering (for a fee of course) to put that seller in touch with someone locally they knew wanted a car of that type. Nothing ever materialising from that call, of course.
However, justice has now been served on those involved in one of those scams.
Sentences were as follows:
Managing Director – 24 months imprisonment – 8 month disqualification as a Director – repay nearly £210,000 under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Co-defendant 1 – 30 month prison sentence – 8 month disqualification as a Director – repay over £10,000 under Proceeds of Crime Act.
Co-defendant 2 – 18 month prison sentence – 2 year disqualification as a Director – make repayment under Proceeds of Crime Act.
Co-defendant 3 – 8 month prison sentence (suspended for 2 years) – undertake 200 hours of unpaid work – 2 year disqualification as director and repay over £7000 under Proceeds of Crime Act.
And for anyone who thinks that the amount of payback that the MD has to meet (nearly £210k) is somewhat substantial, do please bear in mind that his confiscated assets acquired through criminal conduct were valued at £1,937,279.36 – so clearly this was big business!
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