Five year ban for rogue car sales boss
THE boss of a Salford company who supplied luxury cars to footballers and celebrities, has been banned from being a company director.
Richard McMullen of Liverpool, ran VIP Auto Sales at Salford Quays, was prosecuted by trading standards officers after customers complained when his firm took thousands of pounds for top of the range Mercedes-Benz cars but delivered neither the cars nor a refund.
McMullen blamed a salesman he had employed claiming he had “gone rogue”.
The 37-year-old of The Albany, Liverpool, appeared at Manchester Crown Court on November 9 and was sentenced to 200 hours unpaid community service and ordered to pay £9,601 compensation to his victims within six months.
He was also disqualified from being a company director for the next five years.
He pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to two offences under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 relating to not having a licence to operate as a credit broker and 11 breaches of the Consumer Protection Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.
Salford City Councils’ trading standards team started receiving complaints about VIP Auto Sales of NV Buildings, The Quays at the beginning of June 2013.
Customers complained they had paid deposits for vehicles under a hire purchase agreement but had not received either the cars or a refund.
Mr McMullen was interviewed under caution by trading standards officers in April 2014. He blamed the salesman he hired for misrepresenting deals to consumers, though he had not done any checks as required by consumer protection law.
During the interview Mr McMullen told officers: “When a guy is putting money in your account and your young business is growing… you’re going to stop asking questions after a while… it’s too good to be true.” Mr McMullen also gave misleading information and failed to inform customers of their legal rights.
McMullen said he did not realise he needed a licence and had not sought any legal advice about running the business. He thought he owed customers around £6,000 or £7000 and said he intended to refund all his customers.
However, he admitted he had not told them this and had not told them his new business address or that he had changed the name of his business and its Twitter account.
Cllr Gena Merrett, executive lead member for housing and environment at Salford City Council, said: “Mr McMullen simply should not have been in business. He failed to carry out any research before setting up the company and blithely ignored the law and his customers. As long as the money rolled in, he was happy though his customers were not.
“This has been a long and complex case for our trading standards team but they have succeeded not only in winning compensation for the victims but also in having Mr McMullen banned from business for the next five years. It is an excellent result.”
