A CO MEATH dealership has been convicted of "clocking" cars before selling them to unsuspecting buyers.
Feltrim Motors Ltd, of Ashbourne, Co Meath was fined €500 and ordered to pay costs totalling €600 yesterday after being convicted of offering a UK-imported Volkswagen Passat for sale with an altered odometer reading.
The prosecution followed an investigation by the National Consumer Agency, which, when it visited the garage in October 2008, found the dealer was selling the car with 88,674 miles on the clock. Further investigations in the UK showed that the mileage reading in December 2005 was 102,894.
The court heard evidence that Feltrim Motors sold the car to three separate buyers between April 2006 and July 2007. Each one returned it when they became aware that they had not been given the car's correct history.
The NCA had evidence that the car was sold with 36,500 miles on the clock in April 2006. The buyer returned the car and obtained a full refund. A second owner, who purchased the car in August 2006 with a mileage reading of 57,000, returned the car and was also compensated. The car was sold for a third time in July 2007 with a mileage reading of 73,000 and was returned to the dealer in May 2008 for another model.
This is the second successful prosecution taken by the NCA against car dealers involved in clocking. Another four dealers have given the agency undertakings to stop clocking cars.
NCA chief executive Ann Fitzgerald called on consumers to be vigilant and not to buy on impulse.
