Two Blackburn men held in ‘car clocking’ probe (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Two Blackburn men held in ‘car clocking’ probe

9:23am Wednesday 1st February 2012 in Blackburn By Nafeesa Shan, Reporter

TWO Blackburn men have been arrested by police and trading standards officers probing a ‘major’ internet car sales scam.

A 71-year-old pensioner was held at sheltered accommodation and a 41-year-old at another address in the town as part of an investigation into alleged sales of private cars in which mileages had been illegally switched backwards.

Officers from Lancashire’s Operations Support Unit swooped on properties in Limefield Court and Frankland Road, Blackburn, where the two were arrested on suspicion of fraud by false representation.

Police said the investigation, which began in August last year, involved at least 50 cars which were allegedly bought from auctions before the mileage was clocked by between 50,000 and 60,000 per vehicle.

They were then sold on via internet sites such as ebay to customers as far afield as Scotland, Kent and Derby as well as Greater Manchester and Lancashire, police said.

Police said it was alleged that the seller had posed as a “vulnerable elderly man, claimed that the cars had genuine mileage and had been owned by him for a long time.”

Cars that were around three to four years old were purchased and sold for between £4,000 and £5,000 each.

Car clocking involves tampering with a vehicles mileage clock to make it look as though a car has travelled fewer miles than it actually has.

Clocking a car can increase its value, making sales more profitable for the trader.

PC Sian Barnard from Blackburn Police said: “Tampering with a vehicle’s mileage and selling it on without declaring it is illegal and can be very dangerous to the driver and other road users.”