A second-hand car salesman bought a Ferrari and holidayed in Dubai and Monaco on the money he made by ripping off customers. Samuel Smith sold written-off and faulty vehicles to unsuspecting punters and then either ignored their calls or became aggressive with them.
“That is what brought you to where you are now. When the balloon finally went up, you flatly refused to cooperate with the HMRC and even had the temerity to say you would sue them. The prosecutor highlighted a number of incidents involving individual buyers agreeing on sale prices and either paying for the cars in full or putting down deposits only to find they were either not as advertised or faulty. Mr Eckersley said one woman drove up from Maidstone, in Kent, to buy a Mini Cooper she had seen which supposedly had “two previous owners” one being the defendant’s aunt but later checks showed it had five previous owners.