A DODGY car dealer has been given a jail term, two years after being exposed by the Daily Post

Shane Dooley, 43, was sentenced to 11 weeks after being found guilty of selling a dangerous car.

Dooley was in court again after an investigation by Wirral’s Trading Standards.

He faced 12 charges relating to false descriptions of goods and selling unroadworthy vehicles.

Dooley, of Smith Avenue, Birkenhead, sold a Ford Galaxy to a member of the public who found it had three dangerous tyres.

But when the buyer complained, Dooley, who operated from Duke Street, Birkenhead, arranged for them to be replaced, only for the customer to end up with two more unsafe tyres.

Dooley was sentenced at Wirral Magistrates’ Court to two weeks in prison for supplying the unsafe tyres. But he was ordered to serve eight weeks of a suspended sentence imposed for a previous offence of selling an unsafe BMW, together with an additional week for non-payment of fines.

Last night, Wirral’s head of Trading Standards, John Malone, said he believed the suspended sentence handed to Dooley in November, 2005, had been “his last chance – and he didn’t take it”.

Mr Malone said: “He has a history which goes back to the early 1990s. We can only hope this will make a difference. We can only be positive now and hope this is a message he understands.” Dooley’s co-accused, Andrew Davies, 25, of Tapestry Gardens, Birkenhead, was sentenced to a 12-month community order with 200 hours’ community punishment.

Cllr Gill Gardiner, Wirral’s Cabinet member for environment, said: “This sentence sends a clear message to car dealers to ensure the cars they sell are safe.”

liammurphy