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Peterborough Crown Court sentenced the owner of a Stanground car dealer to 10 years in prison. Paul Moyse of Holbeach was convicted of perpetrating a massive fraud that officials estimate cost area consumers over £1m.

Several owners trusted Moyse to sell their cars for them, yet they did not receive the funds related to the sale of the cars. The vehicles involved were not the ordinary Vauxhall or Ford that are normally seen on city streets. These were Bentleys and Aston Martins. In one case, a Ferrari was crashed by a mysterious buyer who then refused to purchase the car.

At Autovia Cars, Moyse conducted several transactions in which cars were sold on behalf of owners, yet he pocketed the cash rather than passing on the proceeds of the sales. Due to the high value of each car, owners were left with a major void in their bank accounts.

While the sellers were the biggest victims of the scam, unsuspecting buyers are now in the uncomfortable position of buying and paying for cars that actually belong to someone else. It has created a huge problem for both parties to the transactions. Buyers believed that Moyse was the owner of the cars. He represented that he was the seller and did not reveal the true owners that had entrusted their vehicles to him.

Beyond the scam that victimised the buyers and sellers of these vehicles, the defendant had the audacity to leverage those cars to borrow £206,000. By using the fraudulently claimed cars as collateral, he received the ill-gotten loan to pay for his big spending ways.

In another twist, he leased several Nissan Jukes but never paid the fees. These were supposed to be courtesy cars, yet he chose to give them away to friends. One was never recovered.

The various misdeeds committed by this fraudster contributed to the lengthy prison sentence. This was not his first rodeo with law enforcement though. While working for another dealer in Northampton, Moyse had previously concocted another scam for which he was convicted of false accounting.

It really shows how car sellers must investigate the background of smaller dealers prior to taking a chance on a very expensive asset. A single mistake could cost thousands of pounds, with little recourse to recoup the loss.