Aren't sellers meant to declare cars on Vcar.?
Interesting story here
(why didn't buyer Hpi car prior to purchase?)
Published Date: 01 August 2008
By Charlotte Reeve
A FORMER South Yorkshire Policeman was today sentenced to four months in prison after fraudulently selling a damaged car.
Neil Stead, from Worksop, advertised the Honda Jazz in the Autotrader in May last year as brand new.
Sheffield Crown Court heard that when the buyer came to take a look at the car with her father and specifically asked whether it had ever been in olved in an accident, Stead, who was wearing his police uniform at the time, said 'no'.
However, it was later found that he had bought it from a salvage yard in March 2007, knowing that it had been involved in an accident.
Stead had told the woman that he was selling the car on behalf of his uncle who was in Spain and no longer needed it.
After she bought it for £5,800, a garage found that the car had previously been involved in an accident and that necessary repairs would cost around £3,500. When she tried for a refund, Stead refused, telling her it had been 'sold as seen', Laura Pitman, prosecuting, told the court.
And when the buyer pressed ahead with legal action, the 37-year-old created a false witness statement using police computers.
At the time, Stead had been a police officer with South Yorkshire Police for around 16 years. The court heard that he had signed the statement as his uncle, but when his uncle was shown the document at a later date, he said that he had never seen it before, let alone signed it. Stead was arrested in November 2007 and later pleaded guilty to false representation and perverting the course of justice.
Sentencing, Judge Peter Jones said that buying a second-hand car is a daunting process and that the fact that Stead was a police officer will have made the purchaser believe that he could be trusted.
"Police officers in this country are given powers and privileges and the public need to be able to trust them," said Judge Jones.
"This wasn't a momentary mistake. When the purchaser came back to you, you had the opportunity to rectify her. You set out to cover your tracks. You acted in a deliberate and planned way. You told a series of lies."
Stead, who has resigned from the police, was given two four month prison sentences which will run concurrently.
