A used car salesman in Wembley who duped his customers into waiving their statutory rights when they signed his sale agreement has been given a suspended jail sentence.

Amar Jawad, 29, director of Carway UK Ltd in Tilling Way, hid the waiver in the small print of paperwork which unlawfully absolved the company of any liability once the sale went through.

He also sold cars on finance through the company without a consumer credit licence, and obstructed investigating trading standard officers by lying about his name and date of birth.

Officers also discovered had also provided warranty documents to customers which were worthless, as he deliberately did not properly registered the guarantee.

At Harrow Crown Court Jawad was convicted of fraud and of obstructing trading standards officers.

He was handed a 12 month suspended jail term, ordered to do 150 hours of community work an ordered to pay £3,000 court costs.

The company was also found guilty of fraud, engaging in an unlicensed ancillary credit business and engaging in misleading commercial practices, and fined £4,100 plus £500 court costs.

Simon Legg, Brent and Harrow Trading Standards service manager, said: “I am pleased with the level of the sentence handed down to Jawad and Carway UK Ltd and hope that this case reminds Brent residents to be extra vigilant when buying second-hand cars.

“Let this case also serve as a reminder to any other individuals or businesses seeking to defraud customers in order to increase profit, that we will not tolerate this kind of activity.

“If you defraud your customers we will find you and we will prosecute you.”