A precautionary tale when selling a car !

S

stijohnny

Member
Wanted to share my neighbours recent experience

He has for sale a 2012 E class Merc, which looks like it's just come out of the showroom.
Now he has really looked after the car, its totally mint, a private plate on there and your friends would think you'd won the lottery.
Anyway, he put it up on autotrader and got a call from a chap, south east area.
The guy turns up at 8.30 in the evening with his mate, course its dark this time of the year.
Neighbour takes em both for a spin in the motor, cruising around the lanes for 20 mins in pure luxury, then the guy in the back shouts that the motor is buring oil, there's clouds of smoke coming out the back!
Neighbour apologises and drives home a bit sheepishly and pops the hood, the engine looks clean.
The guy sat in the back goes round the back of the car and shouts the neighbour round. Look he says the exhaust has black burnt oil dripping from it... Cant understand this says my neighbour, it was fine earlier.
Other chap is under the bonnet, shouts neighbour to take a look, he has removed the rad cap and says there is oil in the water...
Head gasket?
Neighbour says, look chaps I cant sell the car to you like this, I am very sorry Ive wasted your time.
No bother says the buyers, we'll take it off your hands but we can only give you a couple a hundred in this state...
Neighbour begins smelling a rat and insists he wont sell it with at the very least a blown head gasket.
The two buyers leave.
Neighbour checks his cctv and spots the guys squirting oil into the exhaust pipe before knocking on the door, so much that it left a puddle at the back of the car. Then after returning the guy who removed the radiator cap is seen squirting oil into the water.
My neighbour rang the police and guess what, they dont want to know!
I suggested calling the guys back and telling them to bring the cash and when they do, I will be waiting to give them the rubber mallet treatment.
My neighbour is considering his options.
 
Have him set up a pseudo sale on CCTV.
Get clear images of them, then edit a video of their shenanigans and post to twitter and YT. These scams are in the public interest, and trial by social media does far more extensive and lasting damage than a mallet!
 
That is out- :censored: -rageous!!! The cheek to go and squirt oil in the radiator cap right under his nose!! Very lucky he had CCTV!!!

I agree with comment above, as much social media sharing and coverage with a mugshot of their faces will work best. Posting (if allowed by the admins) on various buy/sell vehicles pages will hopefully have them scared off from doing it in the future.

I wonder if Autotrader would want to hear about this experience? They could add it to the private seller warning statements.
 
This is a common scam, was all over the press & TV a couple of years back. If I remember correctly, it was in the midlands.
 
Very common unfortunately these days.

They get away with it too which is really annoying and people fall for there tricks too!
 
Tell your neighbour he's lucky he still has his car. Usually this kind of scum don't mind stealing things, especially during a test drive.

I don't think I'd ever sell a car privately again. Not worth the hassle these days. I'd rather take the hit in part exchange or webuyanycar.
 
There is an advert on Auto trader at the moment for a Range Rover that says for sale / stolen. When you read the ad it says car was stolen during a test drive. The owner was even driving during the test drive. The scumbag potential buyer then pulled a weapon of some sort then ordered him out of his own car then stole it and left him on side of the road . You need to be very wary these days when selling privately .
 
Just the type of thing to report to BBC watchdog.

Should also report the Police lack of interest re an offence of Fraud to the local Police Crime Commissioner.
 
stijohnny said:
Wanted to share my neighbours recent experience
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I really thought you were going to say while one distracted him, the other one drove the car away. Going back to a different topic, he shouldn't have had two strangers in his car during the present situation anyway. I'm surprised the police didn't fine him for breaking Covid rules (actually strike that, no I'm not)!
I would NEVER take two grown men on a test drive at the best of times, let alone at the moment.
 
Nanu said:
Should also report the Police lack of interest re an offence of Fraud to the local Police Crime Commissioner.
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Yeah, good luck with that! They didn't commit an offence, they tried to dupe him.
 
Pondrew said:
Nanu said:
Should also report the Police lack of interest re an offence of Fraud to the local Police Crime Commissioner.
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Yeah, good luck with that! They didn't commit an offence, they tried to dupe him.
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Just because they were bad at it doesn't make it less of a crime. That's called "attempted fraud and deception" here, I assume you would have a similar law. In fact if the police were serious they could charge them with numerous other offences as well. Tell him to find a copper who takes their job seriously.....not the plonker he spoke to.
 
rdgreen said:
Just because they were bad at it doesn't make it less of a crime. That's called "attempted fraud and deception" here, I assume you would have a similar law. In fact if the police were serious they could charge them with numerous other offences as well. Tell him to find a copper who takes their job seriously.....not the plonker he spoke to.
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Maybe in Aus; not here. I can't see what crime has been committed. I'm not saying it shouldn't be a crime, it should, but they a) didn't steal anything and b) didn't gain money under false pretense (fraud). Attempted fraud is quite rightly nigh on impossible to prove.
If you willingly (and this is the point willingly without coercion) volunteer to give someone anything of monetary value it is not a crime, unless you can prove it was under duress, which in this case does not apply.

If they had duped the chap into selling his car to them for a few hundred quid, I think he would have a VERY difficult time convincing anyone he was anything but stupid; and stupidity or ignorance is not a valid defence in this country at the moment (thank God).

Why do (some people) immediately go crying to the law because they made poor decisions? The law deals with facts and crimes, not conjecture.
 
Pondrew said:
Maybe in Aus; not here. I can't see what crime has been committed. I'm not saying it shouldn't be a crime, it should, but they a) didn't steal anything and b) didn't gain money under false pretense (fraud). Attempted fraud is quite rightly nigh on impossible to prove.
If you willingly (and this is the point willingly without coercion) volunteer to give someone anything of monetary value it is not a crime, unless you can prove it was under duress, which in this case does not apply.

If they had duped the chap into selling his car to them for a few hundred quid, I think he would have a VERY difficult time convincing anyone he was anything but stupid; and stupidity or ignorance is not a valid defence in this country at the moment (thank God).

Why do (some people) immediately go crying to the law because they made poor decisions? The law deals with facts and crimes, not conjecture.
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Because its a scam mate, that's illegal. If someone with all the tools to break into your house gets stopped before they do they are still arrested and charged as they are "going equipped" to commit crime, there is clear intent to commit crime, the cops dont just check if you have actually stolen anything yet then let you go if your night of robbing hadn't kicked off yet ffs. Someone running a scam is actively trying to cheat, lie and effectively steal.
 
Flyingfifer said:
Because its a scam mate, that's illegal. If someone with all the tools to break into your house gets stopped before they do they are still arrested and charged as they are "going equipped" to commit crime, there is clear intent to commit crime, the cops dont just check if you have actually stolen anything yet then let you go if your night of robbing hadn't kicked off yet ffs. Someone running a scam is actively trying to cheat, lie and effectively steal.
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I don't disagree. Problem is in this case they "went equipped" with a litre of oil. I can't see that getting to court, can you?
These people are scumbags admittedly. That is not a crime; if it were we would need a hell of a lot more police and prisons on every corner.
 
TBH, I still can’t believe someone went for a test drive with two random guys in the dark irrespective of current situation/restrictions. I was expecting this to end with a weapon was pulled and he was left standing in the middle of nowhere minus his car, phone and wallet :headbang:
 
Pondrew said:
I don't disagree. Problem is in this case they "went equipped" with a litre of oil. I can't see that getting to court, can you?
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They are also on cctv tampering with the guys car plus they were actively trying to dupe the guy.

You get busted planning a bank robbery they going to just let you walk because you only planned it and cased the joint, went to do the robbery but it didnt pan out so you walked...? :roll:

That being the case I should move to canada and plan all the crime flawlessly and just wait until the perfect moment presents itself :slaphead:


Argyll Andy said:
TBH, I still can’t believe someone went for a test drive with two random guys in the dark irrespective of current situation/restrictions. I was expecting this to end with a weapon was pulled and he was left standing in the middle of nowhere minus his car, phone and wallet :headbang:
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Yeah that's nuts tbh but then naivety and the optimism bias is a thing :thumbsdown:
 
Flyingfifer said:
They are also on cctv tampering with the guys car plus they were actively trying to dupe the guy.
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I would say vandalism, or damage to property is the best you'd get there. People try to dupe us all the time and it's perfectly legal. Carpetright have 50% sales all the time and offer free fitting on their carpets as one example. They inflate their prices to make it look like you're getting a bargain. That's duping the public.
 
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