Suzanne N

Avoid - liars, conmen, substandard cars

I unfortunately purchased a car just over a year ago when Midlands sports and prestige were trading as D and G automotive. I’m driving home with the vehicle which I paid £7000 for I noticed that the car pulled to the left and the brakes were juddering on the motorway when I applied the foot brake. Thinking the car I’ve been standing for quite awhile and this could be the reason I decided to carry on with the journey and see whether the problem righted itself having been driven for a few days. It didn’t, so I rang them (James Diffey) And said I would get the problem sorted locally as they were 37 miles from where I lived which is what I did. Just about two weeks later the engine management light came on and advise there was a fault with the battery and also an engine fault. Diffey advised me to return the vehicle to them and he would put the diagnostics on it and get the problem solved. That was on the 2nd of June 2018 and I didn’t see the car again FOR OVER A YEAR!! After endless phone calls I was told initially that the fault was electrical, it was complicated, they had to send for parts from France, there was a hold-up there and finally the weeks are ticking by and I sought legal advice and was advised to reject the vehicle on the grounds that it was unfit for purpose and not of merchantable quality. I followed all the advice but Diffey was having none of it And just kept saying that I had agreed the repair and that is what I was going to get. After three months I decided to set the wheels in motion and take them to court. Diffey still maintained that the car was being repaired even after several months. In the meantime being without a car I had to borrow money to buy another one as I couldn’t be without a car. With hold-ups in the court system stating there was a lack of judicial staff, We finally went to court on the 7th of June this year. Amazingly and unexpectedly Diffey actually made the court appearance And lied to the court saying that he was never a partner in the business at D and G automotive and they had ceased trading last October and therefore I was suing the wrong person. This is an absolute lie because he was a partner in D and G automotive and he told me that he was now running a small workshop called Midland sports and prestige on the Stanton Road . Apparently this isn’t a workshop this is another car sales place and one of his partners in crime is Jed Davies Who along with Jake Davies have appeared in court on several occasions charged with selling scrapped motors to the unsuspecting public - Check out the old newspaper cuttings from the Burton newspapers. The only positive thing to come out of the court hearing is the fact that he did tell us where the car was that I haven’t seen for over a year . In fact it had been abandoned on a car park on a trading estate just rotting away and when we turned up after leaving court to our surprise Diffey had already got there before us and was waiting by my car. He denied having any keys for it although the vehicle was open and he told me that the car had been fixed not long after I had instituted court proceedings - he lied.....The car had never been fixed from the day I returned it to him on the 2nd June 2018, it cost us £120 to get it back to Birmingham on a low loader and almost £1000 to get it roadworthy. The fault it was returned to him with was still on the car when I picked it up over a year later. The judge whilst he said he couldn’t give me legal advice said that Diffey’s Defence was that none of it was anything to do with him because he was merely an employee of the company and the name he did give to the court that I should sue is a Russell James Martin but claims he doesn’t know where he is and hasn’t seen him since October last year. I don’t believe any of this because I am in touch with other people and IF Martin exists although some people think he is the one and the same person as diffey, And that if there are many people trying to get money back from them they probably have no chance and you just have to join the queue. Conmen who operate businesses like this probably have nothing in their name and they know how to hide any money so for the poor unsuspecting victims of their crimes they just carry on getting away with it and when things get too tricky they just close the business down set up again under a new name down the road . This whole sorry business counting everything up including the cost of the original car the repairs I had to get done myself and the court fees now amount to £9000, that’s without the £7,000 loan o had to take out to buy another car. I sold the car just a couple of days ago for a massive loss for a little over £2000. You have been warned and if you value your money and your mental health and stress levels do not have anything to do with Midlands sports and prestige or any of the people who are in partnership with them or you could end up like a growing army of us who have been scammed .