A father and son jailed for a massive, four-million-mile, “car clocking” scam can have no complaints about their tough sentences, top judges have ruled.
Abid Hussain, 55, and Nadeem Abid Hussain, 30, were jailed at Birmingham Crown Court in October last year after they admitted to conspiracy to commit fraud. Hussain senior was put behind bars for 61 months, while his son received a 56 month term.
The rogue pair were part of a wide-ranging network involved in doctoring over 250 cars so that their mileometers were drastically run down.
The fraudsters operated between 2007 and 2011, London’s Appeal Court heard Saturday. In all, the gang wiped around four million miles off vehicles’ clocks, said Judge Clement Goldstone QC. In just one case, 100,000 miles was shaved off a vehicle’s mileage.
Father and son challenged their sentences which their lawyers claimed were far too harsh. But Judge Goldstone, sitting with Lord Justice McCombe and Mr Justice Wyn Williams, dismissed both men’s complaints.
There was nothing “excessive or wrong in principle” about their punishments, he concluded.
Birmingham City Council brought the case after receiving numerous complaints from consumers across the Midlands who had bought vehicles from the defendants, which had their mileages lowered – in some cases by as much as 125,000 miles – between 2007 and 2011. This is believed to be the biggest investigation into car clocking that Birmingham Trading Standards has carried out.
