Three “selfish and greedy” men who illegally wiped more than two million miles off cars and vans in a “clocking” scam have been spared prison.
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00:00It's a scam that saw more than 2 million miles wound back on at least 22 used vehicles, known
00:05as giving vehicles a haircut. This seized CCTV footage shows Thomas Hamilton, 34, of
00:11Huguenin Avenue in Broadstairs, plugging in his laptop and tampering with the dashboard.
00:16Two other key players were involved, 34-year-old Ryan Reagan of Wallace Way Broadstairs and
00:21Darren Craddock, 59, of Beach Avenue Charter. Based in Sandwich, they bought high-mileage
00:26cars at auction before selling them online across the country, profiting by some £80,000.
00:33They all pled guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud. Today, at Canterbury Crown Court, Justice
00:38Fowler sentenced Mr Reagan and Hamilton to a two-year suspended sentence and Mr Craddock
00:44to a 20-month suspended sentence, with them expected to pay compensation and 200 hours
00:49of unpaid work each.
00:50We had the assistance of Kent Police and North Yorkshire Trading Standards and we were
00:56supported throughout by the National Trading Standards Regional Investigation Team.
01:01And your reaction to today?
01:04It's good. It's a good sentence. We're pleased we've got to where we are. The only thing
01:09that is disappointing is because of the significant court delays and the process, we've had to
01:16wait. It's caused complications with taking the case through the courts and of course
01:21it's also delayed justice for the victims.
01:24This is Ragu's new car, but in 2016 he was fraudulently sold a VW Golf after he brought
01:30it. He was worried about the lack of service history.
01:33Well once I found out that the mileage was incorrect, I contacted Trading Standards.
01:41You've lost £3,000 on this. How do you feel about all of it?
01:45The only thing for me is that I could have afforded to lose that much. Not that that
01:54makes it much better, but obviously there are people worse off than me who may have
01:59been more adversely affected.
02:02Trading Standards has cross-reference information on more than 200 vehicles handled by the group.
02:07The legal case delayed because of the pandemic, but today justice served.
02:12Gabriel Morris at Canterbury Crown Court.
02:15Canterbury Crown Court.