Mohammed Naeem

On Monday 6th October Hereford Magistrates convicted and fined Mohammed Naeem of 100 Elmay Road, Birmingham B26 2NG, a total of £3000 including costs for selling an unroadworthy car to a Hereford man via the internet auction site Ebay. The 2003 Seat Leon vehicle was also misdescribed as requiring only £300 worth of repairs when in fact the true repair bill was at least £5000 -almost as much as our consumer had paid for it.

The car had previously been an insurance write-off and was in a dangerous condition due to totally inadequate repairs. After handing over £5600 in cash for the car the consumer almost crashed driving back to Hereford - a front wheel was secured by only one nut and the other wheels only had two or three nuts on. The seatbelts did not work and the previous extensive damage had left the car with no impact protection and severe stability problems.

During the trial the defence claimed the offences had been due to Mr Naeem's business partner who had disappeared. In mitigation Mr Naeem had good feedback and had given the customer a refund;- but only after being charged with the offences.

Trading Standards manager, Mike Pigrem said "this car was a death trap, yet to the untrained eye may have seemed in good condition. The public should be very careful when buying motor vehicles, especially from internet auction sites and always check them out thoroughly before purchase. This includes carrying out a car data check to see if the car has been a write-off. In this particular case the buyer was lucky to have made it back to Hereford alive.