A car dealer in Newcastle-under-Lyme has been ordered to pay over £4,200 in fines and compensation after the business was found guilty of false advertising.
A complaint was made against Classy Chassiss following the sale of an Audi TT, with bosses admitting to Trading Standards that the car had a different mileage to the information stated on an internet advert. It was the second time that Staffordshire County Council’s Trading Standards officers had warned the dealership about the practice, and they have hit the business with fines for fooling customers.
Financial penalties are just one of the repercussions dealerships are likely to face if they are found guilty of defrauding customers; damaged reputation is another, as is difficulty in obtaining a motor trade insurance policy. Having a track record of being deceitful is never going to bode well when it comes to a business getting a motor trade insurance quote.
Classy Chassiss was found guilty of selling a car to an online customer saying it had “more than 100,000 miles” on the clock, when in reality it had 190,000 miles on the clock – while technically correct, this was deemed to be purposefully misleading.
The car failed a long journey just days after it was purchased and the dealership, having collected the broken-down car, then charged the new owner £2,100 in storage costs.
Magistrates awarded the buyer compensation of £3,245 to cover the amount he had paid for the car. The company was also fined £1,000 and ordered to pay costs of £750.
