Used car dealer Michael Barry Adams, who traded as Rugby Road Car Sales in Rochdale, was fined £1,250 plus costs at Bolton Crown Court for two offences under the Trade Descriptions Act.

Adams had admitted two offences under the Act. One offence was for applying a false trade description to a BMW 525 which Adams claimed had acovered 47,900 miles. The actual mileage of the vehicle was in excess of 141,698 miles.

In the second offence, Adams had stated that a full service history existed for the BMW, when in fact no authentic service history was available.

The prosecution, brought by Trading Standards, was the result of a complaint made by the purchaser, who had travelled from North Wales after seeing an advert for the car in North West Autotrader.

A spokeswoman said: "In this case, Adams has paid the price for falling below the standard of conduct expected of a professional car dealer."