TRADING Standards officers in Congleton have been praised for their work in helping to jail a mechanic for persistently carrying out shoddy work.

'Garage from Hell' boss Andrew Derek France was sentenced to fifteen and a half months for contempt of court at Warrington County Court.

Trading Standards officers, who have revealed that it has taken them years and cost the taxpayer tens of thousands of pounds to stop him trading, welcomed Government proposals that would speed up the legal process.

County Trading Standards Officer, Neil Pardoe, said, "Andrew France has caused untold anxiety and financial loss to hundreds of consumers. Unfortunately, the law is currently very weak in this area and it can often take years to deal with traders who are treating their customers unfairly.

"It is only due to the hard work and dedication of our team at Congleton that France has been bought to book. We welcome the review of the Fair Trading Act and are hopeful that local trading standards officers will be given more powers to take action quickly in a local court in cases like this," he added.

The Sandbach mechanic was jailed for persistently carrying out shoddy work despite repeated warnings from both the courts and the Office of Fair Trading.

The court found that France persisted in doing poor quality work and selling shoddy goods.

At previous hearings customers had described a catalogue of disasters with his business dubbed as a "garage from Hell".

"One of the main complaints was that he would tell customers a job would take a few days but it would take weeks and months. In some cases people didn't get their vehicles back at all," said a Trading Standards spokeswoman.

The contempt proceedings were brought because Mr France breached an order under the Fair Trading Act 1973, made in 1986.

The court found in 1994 and again in 1997 that he had breached the order.

In 1994 he was fined £500 and in 1997 he was sentenced to nine and a half months' imprisonment, suspended if he did not commit any further breaches of the order for two years.

This suspended sentence was put into effect at court last Wednesday and six months was added for the further breaches.

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