A CAR salesman who sold defective vehicles through his website has been told to pay more than £16,000.

Asrar Ahmed described the cars he sold through his company, Kars.co.uk, as being in good condition - when in fact the five vehicles were riddled with mechanical defects.

Ahmed, the managing director of the website, was brought before the courts by Buckinghamshire Trading Standards and charged with five offences under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations.

An Aylesbury Crown Court jury this week found him guilty of all the offences and he was sentenced yesterday.

He was ordered to pay £14,000 prosecution costs - along with a £15 victim surcharge - fined £1,000, and ordered to pay a total of £1,268 to three of the customers he swindled.

Ahmed, of Townsend Road, Chesham, has 56 days to pay the fines and compensation and will pay the costs in installments over the next 24 months.

All of the charges he was convicted of were contrary to Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations. Jurors found him guilty of two counts of being a director of a company engaging in an unfair commercial practice which is a misleading action, one count of being a director of a company engaging in an unfair commercial practice which contravenes the requirements of professional diligence and is likely to materially distort the economic behaviour of the average consumer, one count of being a director of a company engaging in an unfair commercial practice which hides material information, and another of being a director of a company engaging in an unfair commercial practice which provides material information in an untimely manner.

Ahmed's company, Kars.co.uk, was also prosecuted and convicted of five offences but no further penalty was imposed by the courts.

Martin Phillips, Buckinghamshire County Council's Cabinet Member for Community Engagement, said: "Trading Standards work hard to ensure that consumers get a fair deal and that traders act in accordance with the law."