Mr M v Wren Prestige Ltd

Mr M bought a Porsche Boxster from Wren Prestige Ltd for around £12000, part-exchanging his BMW. The Porsche was advertised as a low mileage example with around 45000 miles on the clock and having good service history, three services carried out by a Porsche main dealer and two by Porsche specialists.

After taking delivery of the Porsche, Mr M had cause to make enquires with the servicing Porsche main dealer, who despite the service books bearing their stamp, had no record of ever seeing the car. The same was found to be true with one of the Porsche specialists.

Mr M informed the car dealer of the fake service history who stated that servicing dealers would be unlikely to keep records of vehicles serviced for more than 6 years. As a result, Mr M instructed Stormcatcher Law, lawyers renowned for dealing with luxury and supercar complaints and in particular automotive fraud.

Further enquires revealed that the Porsche had spent most of its life in Ireland, confirming the service history alleged to have been carried out in England to be fake. Additionally, the Irish equivalent of the MOT test revealed the Porsche to have been clocked by around 50,000 miles, since arriving back in England shortly before Mr M bought it. It also became evident that Mr M’s BMW part-exchange had also been clocked after he sold it to Wren Prestige.

There was prima facie evidence of fraudulent misrepresentation which has been defined in case law as

“where a person makes a statement to be acted on by others which is false, and which is known by him to be false or is made by him recklessly, or without care whether it is true or false, that is without any reasonable ground for believing it to be true,” he is liable to an action for deceit”

Wren Prestige denied liability for clocking the car and producing fake service history despite the mountain of evidence against all concerned, leaving Mr M no choice but to issue court proceedings for rescission (cancellation) arising from fraudulent misrepresentation and/or breach of contract and damages from the company director.

Both defendants filed a defence in which they reiterated their denial of the claim in the face of what was prima facie evidence of both the mileage and service history being false. However, neither defendant complied with the court directions in failing to file witness statements or any evidence to corroborate their denial and in fact did not attend the trial.

Wren Prestige Ltd ceased to trade and the director became uncontactable despite continuing to offer used cars for sale via eBay.

Mr M thanked Stormcatcher law for its expertise in automotive fraud, civil fraud and for bringing this matter to a conclusion.

If you’ve bought a car which has a hidden history, has been clocked and or has fake service history, then contact Stormcatcher Law for legal advice.