BEERE Money

A used car-dealer was jailed yesterday for clocking cars - a practice that is fairly widespread in the back-street car business. He imported three cars, an Audi TT, a Golf and an Audi A4, changed their odometers and sold them for €20,000 more than they were worth. Jeffrey Beere, a 28-year-old from Blackrock, was jailed for 12 months after pleading guilty to falsely altering the odometers. Read more. The real kick in the teeth for the new owners is that they can't sell the car without admitting it is clocked, making it practically worthless, even if they do track down a service history. The AA revealed in a 2008 report than one in five UK imports sold in Ireland were clocked cars. A successful conviction in Ireland is rare because it is not an offence to sell a clocked-car if you don't know it has been clocked. When a salesman tells you that the car had only "one previous careful lady owner" make sure you get it checked out.