Ford Focus - Trader posed as private- Car was a Cat-C before

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Tue 24 Sep 2013 15:32
Ford Focus - Trader posed as private- Car was a Cat-C before - hatefraudsters

Hi Everyone,

I am after some advice here. Long story short: 2 months ago we bought a car advertised on Gumtree. We met the seller, who looked genuine, had all the right things to say. -This was our first car buy in the UK.- Agreed to purchase the car in 2 days and had it dropped off at our address, where we paid by bank transfer. We didn't check the V5C when signing, (he wasn't the registered keeper) also didn't enquie about a receipt as we thought with bank transfer we don't need it.

After looking closely, we found out (MyCArCheck website) that it has been a Cat C in 2010, the receipts he provided from work done on the car been fake- I went to the garage where it was from and they told me they haven't done that work on it. Upon taking the car to a mechanic for a chech he told us the chassis of the car was bent due to a more recent accident then 2010, the radiator of the car was attached to the chassis by 2 bolts instead of 6, and the fan by the radiator was broken and held onto by plastic cable ties. Having learnt all this we went to the cops who told us to report Mr R on Actionfraud website, which we have done, but nothing happened. Nobody cares. Upon more investigation, we found this person has been selling at leats 4 more cars on gumtree, ebay and various sites, (doing checks on 2 of them they have been insurance write-offs as well previously) sometimes using his own name, or a women's name, but same phone number. We have contacted him in a letter to buy the car back because it is not as described (at that time we couldn't prove he was a trader), but simply he refused to sign for a letter, although he was aware of it's content as had sent it to another address, where it didn't come back from- where we went to look at the car, but as it has turned our later, that is not his address. 2 weeks after the purchase we have declaired the car SORN as weren't willing to pay insurance on a piece of junk we want nothing to do with. We know he'd be lying through his teeth would we take him to SCC and not sure we want to see his face ever again, but it is p***ing us off that even serious offenses as faudelent receipts in name of garages etc... don't get attention from the police. On top of it, the very same day be got the car, it collected a penalty notice, and we have got the letter 2 weeks ago. We had to prove with a letter from the bank what time the transaction happened and we still don't know whether they have accepted our appeal or not.

Just tired of us having to prove everything, when we are the ones being taken advantage of. Everybody says just write it down as experience as you don't want to get involved with a criminal like him... but then again- how many times is he going to do this to other people?

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Tue 24 Sep 2013 15:55
Ford Focus - Trader posed as private- Car was a Cat-C before - hatefraudsters

Forgot to say we have paid 1400GBP. It is a 2004 Ford Focus LX, mileage says 76130 but knowing everything we do now we highly doubt that is legit.

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Tue 24 Sep 2013 16:07
Ford Focus - Trader posed as private- Car was a Cat-C before - skidpan

Since he is obviously not going to sign for receipt of any letters you only have 2 options. First is forget the whole thing and get what you can for scrap value or take the seller to the small claims court.

If you did the latter would he actually turn up. If he was ordered to refund your money would he actually do it. Would the bayliffs be able to collect anthing of value.

Basically you should learn from your experience and in future do all the checks before you buy. Its been an expensive lesson but sometimes you just have to accept you have made a mistake.

You should also accept that no 10 year old car will ever be fault free. Even new cars have faults but at least they have a manufacturers warranty.

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Wed 25 Sep 2013 00:39
Ford Focus - Trader posed as private- Car was a Cat-C before - Andrew-T

Yes, I'm with Skidpan (again). It seems you have bought a pup, and in a perfect world everything might be sorted out and you could give the rogue his heap back in return for your cash. However in the real world the cops won't be very interested, and even if you get success in the small claims court that may be all you get. Let off as much steam as you need, make sure everyone else knows who the rogue is, and get on with life.

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Wed 25 Sep 2013 10:12
Ford Focus - Trader posed as private- Car was a Cat-C before - pd

This isn't something the Police will be interested in. Trading Standards in theory might/should be although depening on how busy they are they probably have bigger fish to fry and it will go to the bottom of the pile. Even is TS did bring a prosecution it won't help you.

As you have no receipt the dealer could simply argue they told you it was a Cat C and it is your word against theirs. By the sound of them it would be a very long drawn out process to ever realise any money out of them.

As hard as it might sound, for the value of the car I think it might be best to take it on the chin and move on.

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Wed 25 Sep 2013 14:07
Ford Focus - Trader posed as private- Car was a Cat-C before - hatefraudsters

Thanks for the advice. That's what we are plannig on doing- moving on- at the moment we are advertising the car for 500 with it's honest history. If it doesn't go, we will sell it for scraps.

It just seems crazy though- we all know what is happening in the second-hand car business-, part of the problem that guys like this know they get away with it all the time- so why should they change? This is his livelyhood, selling on written off cars, do them up, create service history ( I forgot to add that was fake as well) and why wouldn't he keep on doing if nobody gives a damn? A lot of things he is doing is illegal, yet it doesn't matter. How much can he clear a year? I know it is a small amount of money for one car, but if we add them all up? That's why this industry is never going to change...

We already had some dodgy people interested in the car, and we are sure eventually a trader would turn up, give us 500, then fix the car and sell it to the next loser without being honest about it's history. :(

Edited by hatefraudsters on 25/09/2013 at 14:13

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Wed 25 Sep 2013 14:22
Ford Focus - Trader posed as private- Car was a Cat-C before - skidpan

Yes there are dodgy traders out there and there always will be. Before we drove cars they sold horses, make an old nag look like a Grand National winner.

But when you look at this forum buyers simply act in a most careless manner considering they are spending most (if not all) of the money they have. Simple checks before they bought would show in most cases the hidden history. A good read at the documentation would show that there is something not right. In most cases the buyers discover this quite easilly after they hand over the cash, why not before.

Most older used cars are on the market because they have problems which the owners cannot fix or afford to fix. Some are sold privately, some are sold by dealers but all cars in your age/price bracket are more than likely to be a money pit.

Rule No 1 - Never believe a dealer

Rule No 2 - Never believe a dealer

Rule No 3 - Refer to rules 1 and 2.

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Wed 25 Sep 2013 14:31
Ford Focus - Trader posed as private- Car was a Cat-C before - hatefraudsters

Thanks skidpan. I guess we let our guards down... Shame I only found this website after we were in a pickle... Interestingly enough, all the other places/sellers we looöked, we picked up something dodgy... This guy had all the right things to say -very good conman- we even told him it is so nice to find someone who is not dodgy...

Well, what can I say. In Hungary I am used to people conning you with cars, but my partner is a kiwi, and he thinks everybody is honest and things like this wouldn't happen here, or the cops would do something. I guess next time I will just treat everybody as if we were in Ukraine :D.

Your advice is most appreciated though... it is good to know that there are others as well out there who have been taken advantage of, it makes us feel less of a smuck.

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Wed 25 Sep 2013 16:03
Ford Focus - Trader posed as private- Car was a Cat-C before - Dwight Van Driver

Use the Keyword: Road Traffic Act 1988

bring up that act.

Go to Section 75. Seems likely breach

Were Plod aware?

dvd

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Wed 25 Sep 2013 16:52
Ford Focus - Trader posed as private- Car was a Cat-C before - Andrew-T

It is a 2004 Ford Focus LX, mileage says 76130 but knowing everything we do now we highly doubt that is legit.

Incidentally if the rogue gave you a current MoT, you can check its MoT history since 2007 on the Gov website (use the MoT 'certificate' serial number). That could be interesting.

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Wed 25 Sep 2013 17:32
Ford Focus - Trader posed as private- Car was a Cat-C before - hatefraudsters

Incidentally if the rogue gave you a current MoT, you can check its MoT history since 2007 on the Gov website (use the MoT 'certificate' serial number). That could be interesting.

Andrew, I checked it previously, based on that it is valid, although Mycarcheck only validated the mileage up till 2010, when she had her accident. The later mileage is not included there. I have found small discrepencies like failing an MOT then passing it in 2 days with the same mileage- this I thought was interesting... Or when it failed an MOT then in 6 weeks passed the next one, but did 610 miles in between...

BTW, I don't get MOT's they are a joke. Seeming the car had a fresh MOT (3 weeks old when we bought it) and finding out the problem with the radiator, I have called the garage to see whether they have actually performed the MOT or my seller has faked that too - not too much to think after the fraudelent receipts- . They kept askingt what was wrong with the car, I told them about our findings, then they said they do not have to look at that for an MOT... Well as far as we were concerned they are part of it too, as we don't think the car is roadworthy like that. Or on the off chance they were actually telling the truth, the would fail a car's MOT if the wiper blades are off, but let it pass if the radiator is about to fall out? Strange logic to me....

Edited by hatefraudsters on 25/09/2013 at 17:42

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