Ballymena car dealer turned drug '˜farmer' is facing jail

A former motor salesman turned drug '˜farmer' from Ballymena has become the first car dealer to be brought before the Crown Court for '˜car clocking'.
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Samuel Surgenor, from Moorfields Road, Ballymena, who is facing jail later this week for cannabis growing, admitted “engaging in misleading commercial practice” by turning the mileage back on an Audi car and a BMW car.

Prosecution lawyer Philip Henry told Antrim Crown Court that normally such cases would be dealt with by the lower magistrates’ court, where 50-year-old Surgenor already has previous convictions in his own name and that of two car dealerships.

Mr Henry said Surgenor, operating as SDK Motors, originally faced a total of seven charges related to vehicles but pleaded guilty to two further “catch all counts”, reflecting his criminal behaviour.

The lawyer said that in the first case, that of an Audi, Surgenor had actually sold the vehicle, but in the second he was caught after Trading Standards were tipped-off about the mileage of a BMW he had advertised for sale.

Mr Henry said that in the case of the Audi, he told the buyer the mileage on the odometer was 110,000, when in fact the car had clocked up 135,000 miles.

Two months later, in August 2013, Trading Standards were advised to check on a BMW offered for sale with 124,000 miles on the clock.

However, when Trading Standards checked with the auctioneer who originally sold the car, they found the true mileage should have been over 160,000.

Defence lawyer Stephen Law told Judge Desmond Marrinan that it was always Surgenor’s intention of pleading guilty to the charges.

Mr Law added that while Surgenor now accepts he should have been much more diligent, at the time he was going through a family bereavement.

Adjourning sentence, Judge Marrinan indicated that he intends to jail Surgenor for his dealings in a cannabis factory.

At an earlier court hearing Surgenor was described as being the “most culpable” in a group of four men who admitted involvement in the running of the cannabis growing at the Deerfin Road site in Ballymena.

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