A second hand car conman who left his customers thousands of pounds out of pocket will spend Christmas behind bars.
Alexander McTavish, 68, of Kinross, was sent to jail for three months over a string of dodgy transactions including the sale a four-wheel-drive vehicle described by a mechanic as a “death trap”.
McTavish, who was imprisoned for fraud in 2011, was sentenced by Sheriff William Wood when he appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court.
At a previous hearing, Sheriff Colin McClory ruled McTavish was in contempt of court, after he admitted 10 breaches of an enforcement order imposed in 2010 under the Enterprise Act 2002. Sheriff Wood said: “I note that you are no stranger to the court in relation to your past offending. You’ve been to prison in the past for offences of dishonesty.
“Only a custodial sentence is appropriate in this case because nothing else seems to have worked.”
Fife Council served the enforcement order to prevent McTavish from breaching sales contracts by retaining vehicles without refunding customers or selling cars that were not as described. But McTavish breached the order just three months later.
Representing Fife Council, Alison Higgins said McTavish had shown a “complete lack of regard and contempt for this court”.
She said: “The defendant told blatant lies to consumers. For many of them, the sums they paid to the defendant were as much as they could afford. None of them have had any money back yet.”
Among McTavish’s unfortunate customers was Laura Brown from Orkney, who phoned up about an advert for a Mitsubishi Shogun placed by the Methil car dealer, Kingdom 4×4. When she spoke to McTavish on the phone, he told her the vehicle was “immaculate”.
McTavish agreed to have the car delivered to Aberdeen ferry terminal but said the full payment of £1,950 would be required before it left Fife. Having paid for the car, Ms Brown also ended up having to pay for the sailing fee, despite McTavish having agreed to cover that cost. A mechanic who examined the vehicle after it was shipped described it as a “death trap”.
McTavish refused to refund Ms Brown’s payment or repair the vehicle.
Michael McLeary, 68, of Dunfermline, bought a Fiat Doblo from McTavish’s garage in Sea Road, Methil, during July 2011. The van had 57,069 showing on the clock and had been described as having had one previous owner, when it had actually travelled more than 100,000 miles and had six previous owners.
Wheelchair-bound Mr McLeary, who was in court to see McTavish sentenced, said: “I lost £2,800, maybe a wee bit more. I think justice has been done.”