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PHOTO KATIE TODD 041018-KT-0036
Conned by car dealer BY KATIE TODD
KATIE.T@THEGUARDIAN.CO.NZ
An Ashburton man has described the moment he fell into the trap of a Christchurch car dealer with a string of convictions for fraud and assault. Stephen Watson claims the man, who appeared in Christchurch District Court yesterday and was given name suppression, offered to sell a car on his behalf, but incurred thousands of dol-
lars’ worth of damage to it. Watson had listed his Golf GTI on TradeMe when he received a lengthy text message from the man last month, offering to sell it through his company in Christchurch. Watson agreed after checking online that it was a legitimate registered business. Watson wrote down the odometer reading and signed a contract, agreeing that the car dealer had 28 days to sell the car. Wat-
son was told that the car would be groomed and that there was already a buyer lined up. “But I became a bit suspicious,” he said. “It started when I drove past the car yard one day and noticed the car wasn’t there.” Upon asking why, Watson was told that his car was at the man’s “other car yard” and directed to an address where no car yard existed.
He approached another car yard down the road and spoke to staff. His car was not there either. Increasingly suspicious, Watson rang the man, who then told him his car was at a groomers. Watson asked for his car back and the man agreed to leave it at a petrol station and give the keys to the staff behind the counter. “There was a lot of damage to the car, that he denied doing, and there was 700 kilometres added
to the odometer,” he said. Watson has contacted police, Fair Go, the Motor Vehicle Traders Association and his insurance company about the ordeal. Watson is one of several people to have spoken out against the car dealer’s behaviour.
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