A MAN who made bids on used cars he had listed on an internet auction site in order to boost his profits walked free from court yesterday.

Neil Drinkwater, 30, operated as a used-car salesman under the trade name NDD Cars even though he was not registered as a commercial business. While listing cars for sale on eBay under the account name ‘8481davis’, he then used his partner’s and brother’s accounts to bid and comment on his own items.

Swindon Magistrates’ Court heard the recovery truck driver, of Station Road, Chiseldon, would invite prospective clients to his home to see the vehicles, many of which he had himself bought on eBay or had restored after recovering them for his employers 24/7 Rescue and Recovery.

The father-of-three had earlier admitted 21 charges, including breaching Unfair Trade Regulations and committing fraud by false representation, following an investigation by Swindon Council’s trading standards department at a cost of £4,692.

Speaking after being ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work and pay costs of £500, Drinkwater said: “I regret what I did.”

Council solicitor Philip Wirth, prosecuting, said trading standards officers first got in touch with Drinkwater in 2010 to warn him and give him advice on how to go about it legally.

But after a complaint by one of his customers – who bought a Renault Megane which broke down 70 miles later in April last year – officers stepped up their investigation and found dozens of illegal transactions, upon which Drinkwater was making up to £500 profit per car.

Mr Wirth said: “Mr Drinkwater had been trading as a trader and on a number of occasions bid on vehicles he had listed for auction. He had been carrying out unfair commercial practices and bidding on his own items in order to artificially inflate the price.

“The offences are aggravated by reason of his failure to heed advice given in December 2010 and further correspondence in the same month. Knowing he was breaching the regulations, he carried on with regular offending.”

Con Fernandes, defending, said Drinkwater had been trying to make a bit of extra money to support his family.

He said: “He was trading simply to earn some money and his procedures can be described as sloppy. There was no real malice in what he has done. He, in my view, did not appreciate the seriousness of what he had done.

“He did not fully appreciate what must have been described to him in 2010. His customers, generally speaking, were entirely satisfied with the vehicles, which were of lower value.

“He fully accepts what he did was wrong.”

In sentencing him, District Judge Simon Cooper said: “These are your first serious offences. You have concealed your trader status and lied about it. You have deprived purchasers of their statutory protections and also inflated artificially the price of cars genuinely bid for by others.

“You persisted in the face of clear warning and 80 to 90 people, and I emphasize people, have been affected by what you have done.”

Councillor Richard Hurley, the council’s cabinet member for public protection, said: “The public can rest assured that we will always be vigilant in ensuring that traders act fairly and properly towards consumers.”