Lawgistics has learned that the Warwickshire Trading Standards Officers recently examined 22 second hand cars and six were deemed unroadworthy.

The faults ranged from minor issues such as torn upper blades and failed lights throughout to more major issues relating to severe corrosion of flooring and broken door handles.

Many motor retailers leave the MOT check until an order is placed but, in doing so, run the risk of being prosecuted if the car is offered for sale/test driven in an unroadworthy state.

In addition Stockport Trading Standards Officers did a similar exercise.

Five garages were visited with 13 vehicles found to be unroadworthy.

Further enquiries are being made on the history of more than 100 vehicles, which may be potentially misdescribed.

Lo and behold car clocking is still heavily featuring in reports from Trading Standards Departments.

In North West London a car clocking investigation called “Operation Snowball” started when a purchaser found out that their car showing 120,000 miles had previously had 245,000 miles.

Over six months 83 clocked cars had been offered for sale and as estimated 6.5 million miles had been ‘clocked’ off the vehicles.

In the worst examples a VW Passat had 215,000 miles wiped off and a VW Sharan 208,000 miles! Five men were arrested and bailed but only three returned to court.

Each was jailed for 16 months.

Visit www.lawgistics.co.uk or call 0870 26 77 118 for more information.