A used car salesman who sold vehicles which had been written off intimidated complaining customers and threatened to kill one woman and her husband, a court heard.
Robert Knight, of RK Transport Trade Centre Ltd in Cwmbran , told the frightened couple after their car broke down, “You don’t know what I am capable of.”
“He said he would burn down their house and would kill them,” prosecutor Lee Reynolds toldCardiff Crown Court where Knight, 41, was jailed for seven months.
Complaints from Louise and John Holmes and more than a dozen other customers were said to have been greeted with a tirade of abuse from the second-hand car dealer.
Mr Reynolds said: “He was perfectly pleasant and professional up to the point of sale but after that he was anything but.
“Consumers experienced vehicles which soon after sale were not mechanically sound and sometimes dangerous but were met with abuse and foul language when they complained.
“They were put off complaining because of his attitude and if they did persist it would only intensify.
“He falsely claimed faults had been rectified, threatened them, failed to return their calls, claimed their warranties were invalid, and refused refunds.
“Some vehicles sold had been previously written-off.”
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Mrs Holmes and her husband asked for their money back when she heard nothing for several weeks after returning her purchase to him.
Knight lost his temper and screamed at them – hurling obscenities at Mrs Holmes while pointing right in her face, Mr Reynolds said.
“When her husband told him to calm down he snatched keys and an envelope of documents she held in her hand.
“She said she would call the police and he said they didn’t know what he was capable of and he would burn down their house.
“They were frightened for their safety, lost the £800 they paid him, and had to take time off work.”
Another female customer, a psychiatric nurse, was told to “Get the **** out of here” in front of her four-year-old son in the car.
Another was warned: “Don’t come here with a bloody list, expecting things to be done” – and then threatened with a trespass allegation if she didn’t leave Knight’s garage.
Others forced to take their cars to other garages when they broke down or who went to get them checked for “peace of mind” were told going elsewhere had invalidated their warranties.
They described Knight, of Mountain Road, Upper Cwmbran, as “intimidating and aggressive”.
Customer Rosalind McDermott ended up scrapping her £895 car when she failed to get satisfaction and was shouted at and called a “bitch” and another, Susan Davies, was told RK Transport Trade Centre was the “best garage for miles” before being warned: “Don’t look at me with a stupid ******* face” and being ordered out of his office when she said she would go to Trading Standards.
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Buyer Keith Miller was driving along a motorway when the bonnet of his car suddenly went up and “bent over onto the roof”.
Mr Reynolds told the court: “It was extremely frightening. The car was undriveable and he was just glad there wasn’t more traffic on the road.
“He called the garage and the man who spoke to him was ‘abrupt and aggressive’ and no repayment was ever made to him.”
Another man, whose car had a faulty fuel line, was told not to “get cocky” and told Knight would go to his home or he could “come to the yard” where Knight “and the boys” will “sort it out”.
The court heard it wasn’t just the customers who felt intimidated.
One female investigating officer called in to work on the case later said she had been glad to have a male colleague with her after folders were “thrown” towards her by Knight.
Mr Reynolds said: “He was particularly aggressive and intimidating towards women and they faced harassment and bullying when they complained.
“All the vehicles investigated were unsatisfactory and some dangerous.”
Knight had pleaded guilty last year to 15 charges of engaging in aggressive commercial practise and one of supplying a dangerous product but his sentencing hearing was delayed.
The court heard the people named in the charges were not the only customers to complain.
Mr Reynolds said: “There are others too but we had to draw the line somewhere.”
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Defence barrister Nicholas Gedge said Knight, a father-of-seven who also operates a rental property business, had been under severe stress at the time as a result of bereavements and a complex home life where his marriage was breaking down.
He said the customers who complained represented just 1% of the car deals completed at the garage.
“He placed too much reliance on garages higher up the chain who supplied the vehicles and acknowledges more checks should have been done,” said Mr Gedge.
He said there was a “better side” to Knight who had built up two businesses while unable to read or write.
Knight is currently serving a three-year prison sentence imposed earlier this year for charges of actual bodily harm and sexual assault and was told the new seven-month term would run consecutively to his current jail term.
Judge David Wynn Morgan said Knight’s customers were looking for low-price cars, sometimes for their children or for elderly relatives.
“They trusted you and what they got were not just defective vehicles but threats which were unforgiveable,” he told him.
A Proceeds of Crime Act hearing will be held later this year.
see-http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/used-car-dealer-who-sold-11206523
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