Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jan 10, 2014 News
A Hadfield Street, Georgetown car dealer has disappeared without a trace, leaving a number of his customers who would have paid him for vehicles yet to be delivered, in tears.
Advertisements running in the daily newspapers for several months last year identified the business as an auto sales and services company.
Business transactions were being conducted at a section of a popular business
place on Hadfield Street.
In one of the many advertisements, it was mentioned that customers would get free fuel for one year with every purchase or pre-order.
Photographs of a number of vehicles with their prices attached were printed in the newspaper under a “cheap and sweet deal” and persons without thinking twice, approached the auto sales dealer and made payments for vehicles that, reportedly, were never delivered to them.
Apart from the advertisement, there were a number of vehicles on display opposite the Hadfield Street business entity where the car dealer was operating from.
Yesterday, a woman, who identified herself as one Avril Johnson, and claimed to be a customer who was duped by the advertised auto sales company, contacted this newspaper with her story.
The woman, who hails from Timehri, said that she operates a small shop at her home and had plans to purchase a Toyota Premio.
“I had $700,000 in my bank account and I went into the bank and secured a loan…so when I find a car, officials from the bank would come and do their own investigations, and then I would make a deposit to the bank and the bank would buy the car for me,” the small-time businesswoman explained.
She added that once she received her vehicle, she would be obligated to pay the bank monthly installments for four years.
“In April last, I was checking around for a black Toyota Premio and I happened to see the advertisement in the newspaper, so I went to the place and I met the boss. He told me that if I buy the car directly from him I would get a better deal,” the woman recounted.
She added that the car dealer explained to her that she could make the downpayment of $700,000 to him and pay him a monthly installment for three years, instead of paying the bank for four years.
“I agreed and I went into the bank and cancelled the loan process and I transferred the $700,000 I had in my account into his (car dealer’s) account and after that, he made a sales agreement where both of us signed and he said that they would call me,” Johnson noted.
The woman explained that since she made the deposit in April last, no one from the car company contacted her. “Three months passed and I keep calling and I was forced to go to their office. The owner said that they waiting on a shipment to come in.”
The woman explained that she continued to visit his office frequently but was given the “royal runaround.”
“The last time I went to his office was in November, he showed me a white Premio, but my daughter wanted a black, so he said he will spray it over.”
According to the woman, when she visited his office last month (December) to collect the car, he told her that the rain fell and he was unable to spray the vehicle. “Because of the holiday confusion, I didn’t go back until today (yesterday).
Johnson said when she turned up at the auto sales’ office, she noticed a signed at the door which stated that the company was closed. Apart from the sign, she met two other persons who told her that the business closed last month.
“A man said that in December last, a lot of people were here, and they were crying and so.”
Proprietor of the business entity from where the car dealer was operating said that the rent was never paid to him.
He could not immediately say how long the space was rented to the car dealer.
“He never paid the rent or light bill, but we were waiting on the business to pick up, because we put money into it.”
The businessman also explained that it was never the car dealer’s intention to fleece people, but he mismanaged the business.
According to the proprietor of the Hadfield Street business entity, the car dealer was forced to leave the country after persons threatened to kill him.
The police are now investigating the matter.
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