A pair of used car dealers have been fined after a used car they sold was repossessed from its new owner due an outstanding finance payment of £900.

Tahir Karim (45) and director Zaher Tarim (35) were each handed £300 fines, ordered to pay costs of £200 and separate £40 victim surcharges after admitting a breach of consumer protection laws during the sale of the 55-reg Citroen C3 through their business One Direction Cars Ltd in Canal Road, Cwmbach, Wales.

Rhondda Cynon Taf council’s its trading standards team began investigating the pair in May 2014 after an Aberdare woman reported that she had been sold the car without being told the car had outstanding finance.

She was contacted by a company called Mobile Money demanding a £900 payment and saw the car repossessed after One Direction Cars refused to pay the money, owed since 2013, Wales Online reported.

RCT’s trading standards officers were initially told that Tahir Karim was dealing with the issue.

A council statement revealed that letters were sent to the company offices in Cwmbach to Tahir Karim and Zaher Tarim but an unsigned response came back from Tahir Karim, stating he had left the business in November 2014.

The dealership later claimed that the car in a state of disrepair from a car dealer who had bought it from the first owner “in good faith” and without knowledge of the outstanding finance.

Zaher Karim and Tahir Karim had admitted one offence under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 at Pontypridd Magistrates’ Court earlier this month.

Paul Mee, director of public health and protection at RCT council, said: “To be sold a vehicle that is later repossessed as it has outstanding finance on it is just not acceptable.”