BYNEA ‘CON MAN’ GETS SUSPENDED PRISON SENTENCE

A Llanelli businessman has been handed a suspended prison sentence after he admitted conning his customers out of thousands of pounds.

Paul Berian Lloyd, owner of van conversion company Race Passion/Vdub Passion, based in Bynea, was prosecuted by Carmarthenshire County Council following lengthy investigations by its Trading Standards team.

He was sentenced at Swansea Crown Court on Thursday, March 5, after pleading guilty to nine accounts under the Consumer Protection From Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and two under the General Product Safety Regulations 2005.

He will serve a prison sentence, suspended for two years, on 11 counts which range from six weeks to four months imprisonment, running concurrently.

He was also ordered to pay his victims compensation totalling £27,063.30, and prosecution costs of £14,000.

All of the counts relate to his business, which dealt with the sale, supply, conversion and restoration of camper vans.

During sentencing, Judge Huw Davies QC said Lloyd was a “bodger” not a “coachbuilder”, and that his deceit was aggravated by the fact that two vehicles he designed for couples or families were unsafe.

The Judge also praised the council’s officers, saying: “It has to be applauded the way that Trading Standards have mediated between the consumers and the company.”

The court heard that Lloyd had conned nine separate customers who attempted to purchase, or had purchased, vehicles from him; that he was professional and approachable up to the point of securing an order and money from a customer, and then was anything but.

Lloyd had advertised vans for sale that he did not have to attract consumers to purchase other vehicles, and that once a consumer was intending to purchase a vehicle he would accept a deposit and then either not deliver the vehicle on time, or not at all.

Some consumers paid more than £18,000 for vehicles which Lloyd stated had been purchased and were in the process of conversion when in fact, the van didn’t exist.

He would regularly lie to customers regarding the fact that he had sourced them a van and the stage of its completion.

He would give false details of the sources of his vehicles, and false excuses for non-compliance with delivery dates. He would fail to provide consumers with documentation, avoid consumers trying to seek redress and even threaten them with court action should they try and recover monies to which they were entitled.

He would also refuse to return customers’ deposits or promise their return and then fail to provide them. In the few cases where consumers received vehicles, they were not as described and in two cases, dangerous.

Cllr Jim Jones, Carmarthenshire County Council’s Executive Board Member for Public Protection, said: “Lloyd deceived many people – families that parted with large amounts of money – and not only failed to deliver, he supplied them with vehicles that were unsafe.

“This is a significant prosecution, and the efforts that our officers put in to bringing Paul Lloyd to justice should be commended.”