Reading fraudster who sold fake Land Rover service books gets jail

Mohammed Asghar, of Linden Road, Reading, sold the counterfeit vehicle certificates from four separate eBay accounts over the course of 18 months in what was a “sophisticated” fraud.

The 30-year-old used his friend’s name on some of the accounts to sell service histories for brands including Land Rover and BMW as he “worked in the shadows.”

File photo dated 3/8/2017 of new Range Rovers and Land Rovers on the Jaguar Land Rover site in Halewood, Knowsley, Merseyside. The luxury carmaker, which employs 44,000 workers in the UK at sites in Halewood on Merseyside and Solihull, Castle Bromwich

His actions will have had a “significant” impact on the public, a court heard, as car sellers can use the service histories to suggest their vehicles are well-maintained, hiking the price of the motor at the point of sale.

Asghar’s fraud started in December 2017 when he set up his first eBay store to sell the fake certificates.

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He would ask buyers how many stamps they wished to be included in their counterfeit service history.

Using the first account, he made around £28,000 from more than 1,800 transactions.

BMW reported 144 of these listings to eBay, however, because the items were counterfeit and the account was taken down.

Ford later carried out test purchases of the products.

Undated Handout Photo of the BMW iX3. See PA Feature MOTORING Column. Picture credit should read: Handout/PA. WARNING: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature MOTORING Column..

Three more accounts were set up under the name of a former Tesco colleague of Asghar’s.

Almost 2,000 transactions took place on these accounts, earning Asghar an extra £48,500.

His scams came to an end in June 2019, however, when warrants were executed at his house after a Reading Borough Council investigation linked the shipping addresses on the eBay accounts to Asghar’s residence.

Here, officers found 283 car service books, three boxes of service stamps and four debit cards in the name of Asghar’s former colleague, who was initially arrested but later found to be innocent.

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Asghar was subsequently arrested and interviewed by police.

Prosecuting, Duncan Milne said Asghar "worked in the shadows" and that his fraud will have had a “significant” impact on buyers who bought cars for more than they should have done from sellers.

Defence counsel James McCrindell said Asghar “regrets” his behaviour and is “remorseful” for what he did.

Reading Crown Court.

He added: “This was some time ago and he is going back to being a man who plans to work properly and do the right thing.”

Sentencing, Judge Wall said: “What you were doing was fraudulent trading.

“There was a real degree of sophistication and planning in what you did.

“There was obvious loss to people caused by your offending. People who were going to be sold these cards paid more than they were worth or had issues they were not expecting.”

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Asghar was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to fraudulent trading, applying a sign to goods identical to a registered trademark, sale of unauthorised goods bearing a trademark, possession of unauthorised goods bearing a trademark, possession of an article for use in fraud, and money laundering.

He appeared at Reading Crown Court on Thursday, May 20.

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