Dundee man jailed for selling car that wasn’t his

The man sold the car to scrap dealers. Picture: TSPL

Bruce Bennett spotted that the Peugeot 206 GTi had been sitting in the car park at the Lidl store in Dundee’s South Road for several weeks after its owner had declared it off the road.

Bennett then called up scrap dealers and offered to sell it to them.

He smashed the window to get into it and took £80 for the motor.

The car’s true owner realised the following day that it had been moved - with cops tracing it to the Kelbie’s scrap merchants in Dundee.

Fiscal depute Kirsten Thomson said that when they got to the yard staff said the car had been crushed within hours of arriving there.

She said: “The staff who had come to see the car in the car park had asked for the registration documents which the accused didn’t have.

“However, he offered them photo ID which they accepted.”

Bennett, 35, of Elders Court, Dundee, pleaded guilty to a charge of theft committed on July 8 last year.

Anika Jethwa, defending, said: “He has previous convictions for theft.

“He accepts the vehicle was registered to someone else and had been left in the car park.

“He had seen this and became involved in smashing the window and accessing the vehicle.”

Sheriff Alistair Carmichael jailed Bennett for three months.

He said: “Having looked at your record there’s no alternative to custody.”