CAR DEALER JAILED FOR FRAUD MUST REPAY JUST £1:
50-YEAR-OLD’S PENSION IS ONLY AVAILABLE ASSET
A crooked car dealer, jailed for defrauding customers out of thousands of pounds, has been ordered to pay back just £1.
Gwyn Meirion Roberts, owner of Bangor-based Menai Vehicles Solutions was sentenced to seven years behind bars after a trial at Caernarfon Crown Court in March.
Jailing him for the “shockingly underhand way” he took cash and part exchange vehicles for high-end cars that were never delivered prior to the collapse of his dealership Judge Huw Rees ordered a financial investigation to take place under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
At a brief three minute hearing at the court last week the judge heard the criminal benefit enjoyed by Roberts, 50, of Dolgoed, Llandudno Junction, was £769,210.
Matthew Corbett-Jones, prosecuting, said the figure was accepted by the defence as being correct.
“The investigation showed the only available asset is the defendant’s pension which cannot be accessed at this time.
“This means there are essentially no assets and we invite the court to make an order for the nominal sum of £1.
“We would ask this not be collected and the order revisited when the pension is available,” the barrister said.
Defence counsel Sarah Badrawy said the order was agreed.
Roberts, who appeared via videolink from Altcourse prison in Liverpool spoke only to confirm his name and that he could hear the proceedings clearly.
Making the order the judge told Roberts: “I make the order of the nominal sum of £1, not to be collected. As far as you are concerned that is the matter unless you come into money in the future.”
During the trial the prosecution said Roberts set up deals “too good to be true” in order to secure money from customers.
Mr Corbett-Jones said during 2015 Roberts was “robbing Peter to pay Paul” to keep his business going.
In continuing to trade, the prosecutor added, Roberts had put his customers at risk of loss.
He told the jury many of his customers felt “humiliated and embarrassed” by being the victims of fraud and had suffered significant financial losses.
Roberts had denied taking cash and part-exchange vehicles for highend cars that were never delivered. Giving evidence during the trial he had insisted he intended to honour all deals and deliver all the vehicles.
But the jury delivered guilty verdicts on a charge of fraudulent trading and 22 charges of fraud.
Menai Vehicle Solutions went into voluntary liquidation on October 2, 2015. At the time of the collapse, creditors were owed £1,308,879 and 50 customers were awaiting delivery of vehicles.
Roberts had set up the company at Parc Menai in Bangor in 2008 and it had traded successfully for a number of years, supplying new and used cars and small commercial vehicles.