£100,000 rogue car dealer scam uncovered

Two West Sussex residents are facing a possible jail sentence following a WSCC trading standards investigation that uncovered a massive rogue car dealer scam.

A jury on Monday found Linda Atrell, 48, of Railway Approach, East Grinstead, guilty of charges under the Fraud Act, Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981 and Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 Act, following a trial at Brighton Crown Court.

Lucien Munn, 52, of Beechey Way, Copthorne, had previously pleaded guilty to similar offences.

The pair had been advertising and selling hundreds of cars that had been written off by insurance companies via Autotrader and Gumtree under a range of different trading names in a scam thought to be worth £100,000.

In one of the biggest trading standards investigations of recent years, the WSCC team discovered the pair were systematically buying insurance write offs and then selling those vehicles without declaring that they had been written off to unsuspecting customers.

They were also falsifying service histories in order to make the vehicles appear more attractive to buyers and giving customers the impression that they were dealing with a private seller.

The court heard during the trial that the pair also described the vehicles as “sold as seen” on purchase invoices to try and avoid liability under civil legislation for the sale of faulty or misdescribed goods.

The trading standards team spent months investigating the pair following a complaint from a customer and collected more than 64 statements from buyers and previous vehicle owners.

A Proceeds of Crime Act application was made to confiscate money made from the criminal activity. The pair will be sentenced at Brighton Crown Court on Friday, July 31. They have been warned that they could face a jail sentence.