Thurrock Council Convicts a Dealer Ordered to Pay £2,154 for a Faultless Lie

• Thurrock Council’s Trading Standards team prosecuted a used car dealer who advertised a corroded, unsafe car as “faultless” and sold it to an unsuspecting buyer.
• Muhammad Bhatti of Motors For You Ltd pleaded guilty to 10 offences and was given a six month suspended prison sentence plus £2,154 in costs and a victim surcharge.
• Inspectors also found a second unsafe car on the same forecourt, along with fake service history claims and prices higher than those advertised online.

How One Council Caught a Dealer Selling a Dangerous Car as Faultless

A car dealer trading from a forecourt in East Tilbury, Essex, has been given a six month suspended prison sentence after Thurrock Council’s Trading Standards team proved he sold an unsafe, corroded car to a buyer while advertising it as faultless. The case, decided at Southend Magistrates’ Court on 27 August, is a rare example of a council taking a rogue used car dealer all the way to a criminal conviction rather than settling for a warning or a civil fine.

What Happened

The investigation began after a member of the public complained about a car bought from Motors For You Ltd, a used car dealership based at Production House on Princess Margaret Road. Trading Standards officers found the vehicle was unsafe: corrosion had affected its underbody structure, and there were problems with other critical safety components. The car had been advertised as faultless.

Rather than stopping there, officers went back to the forecourt and inspected the rest of the stock. They found a second car that was also not roadworthy. Alongside the two unsafe vehicles, they identified adverts falsely claiming cars had a full service history when they did not, and cars listed for sale at prices considerably higher than those shown on the dealership’s own website.

Who Did It

Muhammad Bhatti, trading as Motors For You Ltd, pleaded guilty to all charges brought against him. Cllr Richard Bingley, Leader of Thurrock Council and Cabinet Member for Public Protection, Community Safety and Veterans, said the sentence showed the council would not tolerate anyone trying to rip off consumers and put safety at risk, and that the guilty plea showed Bhatti knew exactly what he was doing when he advertised and sold the unsafe vehicles.

The Numbers Behind the Case

Bhatti pleaded guilty to ten offences in total: four under the General Product Safety Regulations 2005, covering the two unsafe vehicles, and six under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, covering the misleading adverts. He was sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for 12 months, and ordered to pay £2,000 in costs plus a £154 victim surcharge, a combined £2,154 on top of the suspended custodial sentence itself.

The two sets of offences cover different parts of the sale. The General Product Safety Regulations 2005 place a legal duty on anyone selling goods, including used cars, to only place safe products on the market, and a car with corrosion affecting its underbody structure or other critical safety components can breach that duty regardless of how the fault came about. The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 separately make it a criminal offence to describe goods in a misleading way, which covers both the false claim that the car was faultless and the fabricated service history records officers found on other vehicles at the same forecourt.

What It Means for Used Car Buyers

This case is not an isolated one. Trading Standards teams across the country have brought similar prosecutions this year against dealers hiding a car’s crash or write off history, and the pattern is consistent: a seemingly ordinary forecourt sale conceals a vehicle that would fail its MOT on safety grounds if properly inspected, sold to a buyer who had no reason to doubt an advert describing the car as faultless. Corrosion of the kind found in this case is not always visible on a quick walkaround and can affect structural strength in a crash.

The case reached criminal court rather than being resolved through a refund or a civil warning, and it sends a signal to other dealers that misrepresenting a car’s condition and safety carries a real risk of prosecution, not simply a customer complaint to shrug off.

The gap between what a buyer sees on a forecourt and what is actually wrong with a car is often wide. Underbody corrosion in particular can sit hidden beneath trim panels or an underseal coating, invisible on a quick walkaround but capable of weakening the structure that is meant to protect occupants in a crash. Buyers relying on a dealer’s description alone, rather than an independent check, have no way of knowing whether that description is accurate until something goes wrong on the road or the car fails its next MOT.

What To Do Before You Buy a Used Car

Thurrock Council’s advice, echoed by Trading Standards teams nationally, comes down to a few simple checks. Check online reviews of the dealer before you visit. Use the free GOV.UK MOT history checker at check-mot.service.gov.uk to verify a car’s mileage and MOT history, including any past failures for safety items such as corrosion or structural damage. Have the car inspected by an independent mechanic before you commit to buying it, and treat a dealer’s refusal to allow that inspection as a reason to walk away rather than a minor inconvenience.

If you believe you have already bought an unsafe car or been misled by a dealer’s advertising, the Citizens Advice Consumer Service can advise on your rights and, where appropriate, refer the matter to local Trading Standards for investigation.

Sources

Thurrock Council Trading Standards, reported by Your Thurrock, “Disreputable car dealer given six-month suspended prison sentence thanks to Thurrock Council Trading Standards”, published 4 September 2026: https://www.yourthurrock.com/2026/09/04/disreputable-car-dealer-given-six-month-suspended-prison-sentence-thanks-to-thurrock-council-trading-standards/

Related reading: Car Dealer Hid a Written-Off Vehicle’s Past and Refused Two Refunds and How to Avoid Losing Your Deposit as Used Car Dealers Collapse at Record Rates.