A used automotive seller from South Wales has been jailed after promoting a automobile in a “harmful situation”.

Alan Peter Lewis of APL Vehicles, Skewen, was sentenced to 6 months in jail by Swansea Crown Court docket and ordered to pay £2,000 in compensation after promoting a automobile “that might have been topic to failure and risked the lives of the motive force and lives of different highway customers”.

Buying and selling Requirements stepped in after the client contacted Residents Recommendation after their native storage inspected the automobile and mentioned it wasn’t secure to drive.

Neath Port Talbot’s Buying and selling Requirements staff organized for an additional examination which additionally discovered the automobile to have been unsafe when it was bought in January 2022.

Addressing Lewis in his sentencing remarks, Choose Walters advised him he had no expertise within the sale of motor autos however ventured into enterprise, shopping for automobiles at public sale and promoting them on.

He added: “On this case you bought a motorized vehicle and when the client went to have an MOT at level of renewal 5 months after she purchased it, it obtained a failure discover and a route that the automobile couldn’t go away the storage attributable to its harmful situation.

“Skilled proof given to the jury mentioned the automobile might solely be described as harmful and may by no means have been on the highway.”

The court docket was advised the automobile had been pushed for 5 months after sale and at any second might have been topic to failure which might have risked the client’s life and the lives of different highway customers.

A council spokesperson mentioned: “Buying and selling Requirements welcomes the sentence imposed on Alan Lewis, contemplating the seriousness of the offence and the defendant’s perspective to compliance with the legislation.

“Buying and selling Requirements takes the sale of unroadworthy and misdescribed automobiles very severely. Second hand automotive gross sales stay probably the most complained about commerce sector and we hope this sends the proper message to unscrupulous companies.”