Recent events in Cumbria where a tractor dealer was found guilty of 'clocking' tractors ( the dealer was jailed for 9 months and ordered to pay £20,000 costs ) have brought to light a potential shortcoming in the way some dealers in this industry record their trade-in vehicles.

Businesses who buy in vehicles to sell on should always be aware that they may be 'clocked'
i.e winding back the hour counter to make the vehicles appear as if they had done fewer hours or mileage and thus falsely increasing their value.

It is therefore very important that they adopt a procedure to safeguard themselves against buying in, and subsequently getting the blame for selling on, a vehicle to which this had been done.

Under the Trade Descriptions Act 1968 a business can rely on a by-pass defence if it can prove that the reason that it committed the offence was due to the act or default of another. This would be the case if someone had 'clocked' a vehicle and traded it in to the dealer who then unwittingly sold it on with a false reading.

Unlike car dealers, there are no national systems to check the 'hours' history of tractors etc, such as a VMC check. We therefore advise traders to make sure that anyone selling a vehicle to them is asked to fill out a 'keepers declaration' which asks details about the vehicle history and in particular the hour counter reading. This is then signed by the seller and kept on file by the dealer. If the seller is not the registered keeper (with personal knowledge of the vehicle history) then further checks may be required to ensure that the history of the vehicle has been established to the best of your knowledge.

Further advice on Trade Descriptions is available through this website or by contacted Trading Standards at 5-7 River Terrace, Ayr . Tel : 01292 616093. Copies of the Keepers Declaration form are available at the same office.

In offering this advice South Ayrshire Council wishes to make it clear that only the courts can interpret legislation with authority and the advice given is the best available based on evidence to hand at the time and is subject to revision if the law is amended or other circumstances change.