Arrested: Queensland man selling utes with wound-back odometers

A Gold Coast man is wishing he could turn back time after he was arrested for allegedly tampering with the odometers of used cars, to hide how many kilometres the vehicles had really clocked up.

A 27-year-old man in Queensland has been arrested by detectives from the Gold Coast Major and Organised Crime Squad in a joint operation with the Office of Fair Trading.

Queensland Police allege the man had sold a number of second-hand vehicles with odometers wound back, fraudulently increasing their value on the used-car market – by reducing the distance shown the vehicles had travelled.

Three utes were located at a Yatala property – including a dual-cab Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series and a single-cab Holden Colorado – which police claim had had their odometers tampered with or “wound back”.

Despite being 10 years old, the LandCruiser was showing a mere 45,000 kilometres on the dash – the equivalent of about three years of driving, according to the national average compiled by Census.

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Detectives charged the man with fraud, operating without a dealer’s licence, and possessing dangerous drugs.

Police have urged buyers to check a vehicle’s log book to see if the mileage corresponds with its service history before making a purchase. And to proceed with extreme caution if no log book exists – or appears to have been doctored.

Anyone who has information or believes they may have been a victim of odometer tampering has been asked to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000, or file a report online by clicking here.

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