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Roadside car dealers curbed
Dealers clogging up Preston estates by selling cars at the roadside have been targeted in a crackdown by Trading Standards.
Enforcement officers slapped notices on cars in Starrgate Drive, Larches, warning sellers of changes in the law, which could see them hauled before the courts if they are operating illegally.
Larches residents organised petitions last year protesting about difficulties with bus access and a chronic lack of parking spaces, and community workers say cars for sale on the street are contributing to the problems.
Tracy Masheter, community involvement worker at Preston Council, said: "It's an issue which has come up at a number of PACT (police and community together) meetings. Tulketh Brow is another area where it is difficult to park.
"If someone is selling 12 cars by the road, it's taking up all that parking space."
Trading Standards officers have also raised concerns that cars sold at the roadside, often through a makeshift sign displaying a mobile number on their windscreens, could be unroadworthy, unregistered or even stolen.
New laws passed in October make it an offence for car traders to pass themselves off as private individual sellers. Persistent offenders could face unlimited fines or five years in prison.
Trading Standards boss Jim Potts said: "Rogue traders use these tactics to attempt to get out of their legal obligations and deny consumers their statutory legal rights.
"The new legislation does not affect ordinary people who are offering their own car for sale or reputable traders who operate properly from recognised business premises.
"What it does do is allow us to weed out those who pretend to be seeking a one-off sale when what they are really doing is running a business.
"This anti-social behaviour also affects residents with legitimate motorists unable to park their cars."
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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