A former policeman turned car salesman has been fined £30,000 for misleading customers at his dealership.

Aziz Saleem, who ran West Sussex based car firm Karz 2 Go Ltd, sold vehicles on behalf of customers who wanted to sell their cars.

But even though the cars were sold to new owners and payments were made in full, the business did not pass the money on to the seller.

When the sellers tried to find out what happened to their vehicles, they were told the car hadn’t been sold or payment had been delayed because of finance issues. Some customers even agreed to reduce the price of their cars to help them sell.

In reality, the cars had already been sold and Saleem – a former detective police constable – had received payment in full.

A business insolvency company informed customers that Karz 2 Go Ltd, which had branches in Worthing and Storrington, was in financial difficulties.

The firm subsequently stopped trading altogether – without payments being made to out-of-pocket customers.

Duped

At Chichester Magistrates’ Court this week, Saleem admitted nine offences of neglect as the company director, resulting in his company providing false or misleading information to the car sellers during 2011.

He was ordered to pay £29,250 compensation to his victims and £14,000 in costs, and was banned for three years from being a company director.

Lionel Barnard, of West Sussex County Council, said: “This was an excellent result for the customers who had been duped, and shows the difference that West Sussex Trading Standards can make for consumers who had lost large amounts of money.

“Under civil law the car owners would have had little chance of getting their money back.

“However we successfully held the company director criminally liable for his actions, which meant thousands of pounds were awarded to his victims as compensation.”