A father and two sons have been ordered to pay £3,700 for mis-selling second-hand cars under a false 12-month warranty.
Charles Wenman Snr, Charles Wenman Jnr and Mark Wenman of Walton Motors in Cranleigh were sentenced at Redhill Magistrates' Court after an investigation carried out by Surrey County Council reported they were misleading customers.
Incidents such as this can often mean that any previous motor trade insurance policy taken out by the garage is no longer applicable. Many insurance companies require detailed information about warranties to provide insurance quotes and any discrepancies can void the insurance policy.
According to the investigation, Walton Motors' website claimed that all used cars were sold with a 12-month third party warranty. However, very few of the cars sold by the trio were actually covered, resulting in many customers unable to claim necessary repairs.
Richard Walsh, Surrey County Council's Cabinet Member for Localities and Community Wellbeing, argued at the hearing that the firm's false claims would have swayed customers into buying cars they may otherwise not have wanted.
He continued: "False claims about products for sale not only mislead consumers but also undermine other businesses and our trading standards teams will do all they can to stamp out these practices."
