Our old friend Robin Luscombe, MD of renowned West Yorkshire-based Luscombe Motors, is being reported in AM as being completely cheesed off with the way the Police and Trading Standards have handled a case he reported to them. Or not handled it, as the case may be.
Never one to mince words, here at NTK Motors we know that Mr Luscombe calls a spade a spade, so when he says that he has been duped by a car clocking sales scam we feel for him. But, as if that wasn’t bad enough, he says that when he reported it to Hampshire Police and Trading Standards, complete with hefty evidence relating to the acquisition of a 68-plate Suzuki Swift hatchback which was found to have had almost 90,000 miles removed from its odometer, he was seriously underwhelmed with their response.
He says that no investigation was forthcoming, despite evidence showing that the same scammers were advertising other cars on carwow’s Wizzle platform.
Mr Luscombe runs a tight ship at his Hunslet-based Suzuki, MG Motor UK and Mitsubishi dealership on the edge of Leeds. We have no doubt he is watchful and careful. And no doubt that he would want such scammers dealing with under the law. He told AM: “I am angry about the response from the police and trading standards.
“We’ve gathered all the evidence together and presented it to them, including a fraudulent logbook, service records and invoice for the previous owner’s purchase of the car at a much lower mileage, but they have basically turned around and said the only thing we can do is pursue a case through the small claims court.
“This guy is acting as a sole trader and is currently advertising another Suzuki Swift for sale on Wizzle, using the same images but a different numberplate.
“I can’t believe it. This is fraud, pure and simple, and I think it’s wrong that the forces that uphold the law can pick and choose which fraud cases they take on.”
Have you been scammed in a similar way? We know this is a growing problem for dealerships up and down the country. Tell us your story. We all need to act together to stamp this out.