A Darlington second-hand car dealer has been fined £8,000 after admitting "clocking" offences.

North Road Motor Company (1992) Limited was found guilty of four charges under the Trade Descriptions Act.

Darlington Magistrates Court heard that the dealership had cars advertised with huge discrepancies in their mileages.

In one case, an M-registered Renault Savanna had 22 miles on its odometer when in reality it had done 163,477 miles.

Stickers had been placed on the vehicles concerned as a disclaimer to say that the mileages were incorrect.

However, the disclaimer had no weight in law, because trading standards officials were able to prove that the dealership had itself done the "clocking" - where a vehicle's mileage recorder is altered.

"Clocking" has been the subject of a Government crackdown on rogue traders over the past 12 months as part of a £30m package of consumer protection measures.

Darlington trading standards officers had swooped on the company in August 1998 to carry out an inspection of its vehicles, the court heard.

After becoming suspicious of the mileage on three cars: the Renault Savanna, an Austin Montego and a Ford Mondeo; checks were carried out on their history by trading standards officers.

This was done by contacting previous owners and piecing together the cars' correct mileages.

The investigation revealed that the three cars involved had done about 400,000 miles more than that displayed on their odometers.

The company pleaded guilty to three charges of applying a false trade description. It also admitted a charge of supplying a car with a false trade description. A customer had bought a car and been told that it had done 48,000 miles, but the correct figure was 168,000.

Investigating officer Shaun Trevor, of Darlington Trading Standards, said he hoped the case would act as a warning to other car sellers.

No representative of the company, which was also ordered to pay £869 costs, appeared in court.

No one from the company was available for comment last night