Poole Car Dealer Jailed For Fraud

23 May 2014, 17:22 | Updated: 23 May 2014, 18:10

A Poole car dealer has been sentenced to 18 months in jail for fraud following an investigation.

A man contacted West Berkshire and Wokingham Trading Standards Service in September 2012, after discovering the BMW car he had purchased from Joseph Nabil, a car trader in Poole, had £22,000 of outstanding credit owed to BMW Finance. 

When he bought it, the car had been advertised as HPI and Experian checked.

The investigation revealed Nabil had sold the BMW on behalf of the previous owner on the understanding that he would settle the outstanding credit from the proceeds of the sale. 

Although the vehicle was sold to the man, the finance was never cleared and the original owner received only a small proportion of the sale price.

This left the original owner £22,008 out of pocket and having to sell his house to pay back the finance company and the purchaser was left with months of problems.      

At Reading Crown Court on May 19, 2014, Nabil, 38, of Gracie Mews, Wimborne Road, Bournemouth (who at the time traded as JL Trade Group in Poole) was sentenced by HHJ Grainger to three 18-month concurrent sentences on each of the counts of fraud by false representation contrary to section 1 and 2 of the Fraud Act 2006.

He was also sentenced to a concurrent 10-month sentence of imprisonment in respect of one count of an engaging in unfair commercial practice by misleading omission contrary to regulation 6 of the consumer protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.  

Nabil had pleaded guilty to all four offences at a previous hearing at Reading Crown Court on March 17, 2014.