THE owner of a car dealership has been ordered to pay up tens of thousands of pounds for misleading practices.

Matthew Webster, from Fearnhead, admitted five Trading Standards offences in relation to his ownership of Faster Car Finance Ltd at Warrington Magistrates Court on Wednesday, April 13.

Magistrates heard that the 36-year-old first set up the second-hand vehicles business – which also traded under the names Faster Car Sales Ltd and FC Car Sales Ltd – in February 2020.

But the company ‘provided misleading information to customers’, an ‘extensive’ investigation by Warrington Borough Council’s Trading Standards team found.

Officers received a number of complaints from consumers who had purchased cars from Webster, of Templeton Drive, between October 2020 and September 2021.

They reported that they had been made to believe that outstanding finance agreements on part-exchanged vehicles would be settled in full by him upon the purchase of their new car.

However, the outstanding arrangements were not settled until their vehicles were actually sold on – leaving affected customers paying instalments on two plans at once.

WBC said that ‘in all cases they had tried unsuccessfully to resolve this issue with the company’.

The court heard that Webster was ‘remorseful and accepted that the business was at fault’, while it was his intention to close the company down and set up a similar new enterprise.

Sentencing, the magistrates panel ‘took a very dim view of his behaviour’ – adding that the defendant had ‘caused a lot of worry and stress’, as well as affecting the victims’ credit rating and causing financial loss.

He was told to pay compensation totalling £16,735.08 and fines of £1,000 for each offence, as well as £4,640 in court costs and a £190 victim surcharge – totalling £26,565.08.

Similar charges against the business itself and 54-year-old former company director Tracey Barratt, of Berkshire Drive in Woolston, were withdrawn.

Cllr Hitesh Patel – the council’s executive board member for environment, housing and public protection – said: “We are pleased to have another successful outcome and the consumers involved have been able to resolve this matter.

“If you feel like you have been misled or would like to report any unfair trading practices, you can get in touch with the Citizen’s Advice service with advice and support."