A 'prolific fraudster' made more than £30,000 by selling pre-stamped vehicle service history books online.

Gulab Mostofa, from Burnley, sold more than 2,700 items on his eBay page, including blank service history books as well as ones with stamps.

Users were able to click on a drop-down menu and select the number of stamps they wanted for their book, which would increase the price.

Mostofa, 46, ran the operation between March 10, 2021, and August 24, 2022.

David Traynor, prosecuting at Burnley Crown Court, said in July 2022 a representative from Ford bought a blank service book from an eBay account named Simply Living.

They found this to not be produced by Ford and made a complaint to Lancashire Trading Standards.

An officer from the authority searched the page and found 252 individual items for sale, including service history books for each major car brand.

It showed more than 2,700 items had been sold.

The officer paid £7.10 for a blank book and used the return address on the label to get the defendant’s address.

They bought another book, this time selecting for six stamps to be inside, which cost £34.95.

The book arrived and had stamps from three separate garages in Manchester, Nottingham and Stafford.

Representatives from these garages told the Trading Standards officer they were not genuine.

The officer attended Mostofa’s address on September 5, 2022, where he told them he was out of stock and had no items on the premises, and he did not think he had done anything wrong.

A search of his house was conducted and only one blank service book was found.

His car was also searched and a further service book was found.

In July 2023, Trading Standards received financial records from eBay which showed Mostofa had made £30,778 from his sales.

Mr Traynor described it as a “prolific business” and “fraudulent activity over a sustained period of time.”

Jordan Millican, mitigating for Mostofa, said his client had not offended since the initial charge and he maintains that good character.

Mostofa, of Briercliffe Road, Burnley, had no previous convictions. He pleaded guilty to one count of making or supplying articles for use in fraud.

Judge Daniel Prowse, sentencing, said: “This was a serious and lengthy form of fraud or facilitating fraud on behalf of others.

“You supplied thousands of documents for money and profit for yourself. This is a particularly serious form of this sort of offending.

“Thousands of logbooks could have affected thousands of people.

“You were making a considerable financial gain as a result of this offence.”

Mostofa was sentenced to two years and seven months in prison.

Nick McNamara, Trading Standards officer at Lancashire County Council, said: "Selling fake goods is illegal and in this case, potentially dangerous.

"Honest buyers could end up purchasing a car which appears to have an excellent service history and has been well cared for, when this is false.

"Protecting consumers by removing illegal operators from the marketplace is vital to ensure that goods and services are real, will last or most importantly, that they will be safe to use.

"If you suspect fake goods are being sold, please report them to our trading standards service via our Citizen's Advice Consumer Helpline."