MOTOR vehicle students at Warwick Trident College will soon be getting their hands on two ‘dangerous’ vehicles donated by Warwickshire County Council’s Trading Standards Service.
Trading Standards Officers target the sellers of unroadworthy vehicles by purchasing suspect cars which are then checked by an expert vehicle examiner.
Garages are targeted based upon complaints received from consumers. Once enforcement action is completed, vehicles purchased are then donated to students for them to practise their skills.
Andy Crump, spokesperson for Fire & Rescue and Community Safety at WCC, said: “Warwickshire Trading Standards enforce a range of laws that seek to protect all road users and prevent unroadworthy vehicles from being sold. Sometimes this means that they come into possession of some very dangerous vehicles.
“Rather than see them go to scrap, Warwickshire Trading Standards has established a relationship with Warwick Trident College to donate these vehicles to them for their students to practise their maintenance skills and boost their mechanical knowledge.”
Lee Kirk, Head of Department for Automotive Engineering, added: “This really is a ‘win win’ situation. Our automotive engineering students get to work on real world vehicles with very real serious faults that require accurate diagnosis and as a result of the actions of the local authority, the roads are safer for us all.”
It is criminal offence to sell an unroadworthy vehicle and sellers could face prosecution.
In the most recent enforcement exercise by Warwickshire Trading Standards, 25 per cent of the garages visited had unroadworthy cars for sale on their forecourt.
