Car dealers warned

Car dealers have been warned not to take people at face value when granting access to expensive stock after two traders were conned by a fraudster handing over bogus cheques for vehicles. In the first case, a man drove off after handing a cheque for $75,000, which later bounced, at a car yard in Te Rapa Road, Hamilton, for a 2008 Porsche Cayman. A few days later, a salesman in Tauranga handed over keys to a 2014 Toyota RAV4 after receiving a dodgy cheque for $46,000. Acting detective senior sergeant Shelley Begbie says both vehicles were found on Friday – the Porsche at a storage unit in Hamilton and the Toyota in a storage yard in Whangamata on the Coromandel Peninsula. A 21-year-old has appeared in Hamilton District Court on two charges of obtaining by deception and will reappear on May 6. He will appear in Waitakere District Court on 18 similar charges later in May. Begbie warns: “We would like these incidents to serve as a warning to other businesses not to take people at face value, but to check before granting access to expensive stock or products.”