A used automotive supplier from South Wales has been jailed after promoting a automobile in a “harmful situation”.
Alan Peter Lewis of APL Vehicles, Skewen, was sentenced to 6 months in jail by Swansea Crown Court docket and ordered to pay £2,000 in compensation after promoting a automobile “that might have been topic to failure and risked the lives of the motive force and lives of different highway customers”.
Buying and selling Requirements stepped in after the shopper contacted Residents Recommendation after their native storage inspected the automobile and stated it wasn’t secure to drive.
Neath Port Talbot’s Buying and selling Requirements group organized for one more examination which additionally discovered the automobile to have been unsafe when it was bought in January 2022.
Addressing Lewis in his sentencing remarks, Decide Walters advised him he had no expertise within the sale of motor autos however ventured into enterprise, shopping for automobiles at public sale and promoting them on.
He added: “On this case you bought a motorized vehicle and when the shopper went to have an MOT at level of renewal 5 months after she purchased it, it acquired a failure discover and a course that the automobile couldn’t go away the storage as a result of its harmful situation.
“Professional proof given to the jury stated the automobile may solely be described as harmful and may by no means have been on the highway.”
The court docket was advised the automobile had been pushed for 5 months after sale and at any second may have been topic to failure which may have risked the shopper’s life and the lives of different highway customers.
A council spokesperson stated: “Buying and selling Requirements welcomes the sentence imposed on Alan Lewis, contemplating the seriousness of the offence and the defendant’s angle to compliance with the legislation.
“Buying and selling Requirements takes the sale of unroadworthy and misdescribed automobiles very critically. Second hand automotive gross sales stay probably the most complained about commerce sector and we hope this sends the proper message to unscrupulous companies.”
