Dungannon trader fined for selling misdescribed car

A Dungannon trader who sold a misdescribed car was today fined a total of £2,000 at Dungannon Magistrates’ Court.

In a case brought by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment’s Trading Standards Service, Mr Jason Stinson, who trades as JRS Commercials Dungannon, was found guilty of two charges under the Trade Descriptions Act 1968. The charges related to a Mitsubishi Evo 7 which was falsely described as a manual model, when in fact it was manufactured by Mitsubishi as an automatic.

Michael Toal of the Trading Standards Service said: “Car dealers are bound by the law to provide an accurate description of any vehicle up for sale. They must therefore take all reasonable steps and precautions to ensure that the cars are properly and correctly described.

“In this case, the car was wrongly sold as a manual model for a considerable amount of money. The most basic of checks by this trader however, would have revealed that the vehicle originated as an automatic, and had simply been modified, at a later date, to make it look like a manual model.”

Anyone who believes that they have purchased goods or services that have been misdescribed should contact Consumerline on 0845 600 6262 or 028 9025 3900 or log on to www.consumerline.org.

Notes to Editors:

1. The Trade Descriptions Act 1968 makes it an offence to apply a false trade description to goods and to supply goods to which a false trade description has been applied. This legislation was replaced by the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 in May 2008.

2. For media enquiries please contact DETI Press Office, telephone 028 9052 9297 or 07866 847919. Outside office hours, please contact the Duty Press Officer via pager number 07699 715 440 and your call will be returned.