A HOUSEHUSBAND who ran a sideline 'clocking' cars including an Aston Martin DB9 has been jailed for nine months.

Colin Ogle earned thousands reducing the mileage on dozens of cars for friends in the motor trade, knowing they wouldn't tell customers what had happened.

And when investigators raided the 50-year-old's home they not only found the tools of his trade but diaries and receipts documenting his crime.

They found he had been earning between £75 and £265 a time for the work with customers including M4, Austen Trading and Global Car and Commercial.

Paul Ozin, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how the father-of-two advertised his wares on the website for his company Swindon Decodes.

He said Ogle described the service as 'mileage correction' but said in reality it was incredibly rare for an odometer to fail: and if it did manufacturers would do it.

The Office of Fair Trading launched an investigation into his business and as a result they raided his home in April last year.

As well as seizing a large amount of equipment from his garage and van they also found the paperwork dating back to early 2007.

When he was questioned he accepted what he had been doing telling investigators between 70 and 100 cars had passed through his clutches.

Mr Ozin said much of the work was for a man who provided cars to the taxi trade, but would then sell them on afterwards.

He gave an exampled of the work Ogle did when the customer brought a 5 Series BMW to him in August 2007 with 113,502 miles on the clock.

For a fee of £80 he wiped off more than 93,000 miles and the car was then used as a taxi for a year before being sold at auction showing just 49,000 miles.

The dealer who bought it then sold it on, not knowing it had been clocked, and when it was sold soon after the eventual buyer soon found it to be a write off.

Mr Ozin said none of the three owners would have paid what they did had they known the car had done in excess of 140,000 miles rather than the 49,000 on the clock.

He said the worst case of clocking was when Ogle knocked more than 120,000 miles off another car.

When he was questioned the defendant said he had been 'stupid' and 'greedy' and said he would help investigators looking into other people involved.

Ogle, of Witts Lane, Purton, pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud, eight of making a false representation and asked for 19 other matters to be taken into consideration.

Chris Oswald, defending, said his client's main line was decoding car stereos and he fell into car clocking at first for legitimate reasons.

He said it could be done if a car had been damaged in an accident, vandalised or had a malfunction.

But he didn't make enough checks on his customers and as time went on he realised he was assisting people's dishonesty.

He said his client had children aged 11 and 13 and as his wife had a well paid job he was the 'househusband' running his business from home.

Mr Oswald said: "He was not central to, or part of, obtaining the money from members of the public. He accepts he took a laissez faire attitude to ensuring that the management of the vehicles was legitimate."

Jailing him, Judge Euan Ambrose said: "The vehicles involved in this ranged from the top end, an Aston Martin, to a Ford Focus including BMWs and Audis.

"The reductions in mileage were significant, they ranged from 10,000 to a reduction of up to 120,000 miles. All but one of the vehicles involved was subsequently sold on with its reduced mileage.

"Consumers, purchasers, rely heavily on the mileage of a second hand vehicle when making a decision about a purchase and deciding whether the price they pay is a reasonable one.

"The clocking of cars causes loss to those who purchase cars with altered mileage and it corrupts the market bringing unjustified suspicion on honest traders."

As well as jailing him he also ordered he pay £3,649.20 towards the costs of the prosecution within 28 days.

This is the first time the provider of ‘mileage correction services’, rather than the seller of clocked vehicles, has been convicted under consumer law.

The case follows the OFT’s market study into the used-car sector in 2010 which estimated the potential loss to consumers from the purchase of vehicles with false mileage is up to £580 million a year.

The OFT is working with local Trading Standards Services to ensure that businesses providing mileage correction services are made aware of their responsibilities under the law.

The OFT believes that legitimate mileage adjustment is extremely rare. The OFT has identified 71 other websites advertising mileage correction services online and is working with local Trading Standards Services to contact these businesses to ensure they are aware of their responsibilities and to inform them that they run the risk of prosecution if they do not comply with consumer protection law.

Ali Nikpay, Senior Director at the OFT, said: "Thousands of consumers are paying over the odds for cars that have had their mileage illegally tampered with.

"This landmark prosecution sends a clear message out to those adjusting car mileages that they face prison if they break the law.

"We will be working closely with our enforcement partners to raise standards across the sector and ensure that appropriate action is taken where mileage correction businesses break the law."

The OFT also welcomes the recent implementation of one of its market study recommendations to make vehicle mileage data more widely available to help combat clocking.