GARAGE manager Alan Chandler has been fined £1,200 under the Trades Description Act after a customer was charged for a car service that had not been fully carried out.

Chandler, of Five Stiles Road, Marlborough, was manager of Lex Autocentre in Paddington Drive, Swindon, on May 30 last year, when Denise Parkin took her Austin Metro in for a service. She was a Swindon Council worker taking part in a Trading Standards survey of service centres.

When the car was returned to her, only 12 of 21 jobs needed had been done and she was wrongly told that two of her tyres were illegally worn.

Last week at Swindon Magistrates' Court, Chandler, 47, admitted four Trades Description Act offences.

He admitted signing documents falsely stating a customer's car had been fully serviced and needed new tyres. Technician Andrew Clifford denied four similar offences and will be tried early next year.

Phillip Wirth, prosecuting, from Swindon's Trading Standards department, said: "The facts relate to a test servicing exercise where the department introduced a vehicle to a garage and asked for a full service as described by that garage."

Mr Wirth added that prior to being taken to Lex, the Metro had been analysed by independent consulting engineers who identified 21 faults.

Following the £89 service at Lex, the firm indicated that two tyres had illegal tread depths, which was not true.

The firm also left nine of the necessary jobs undone. These included checking the transmission oil, attending to a non-functioning light and topping up the brake reservoir. However, Mr Wirth stressed that the car was not left in a dangerous state.

Chandler's solicitor, Julian Bailey, said his client had since quit Lex. He said Chandler had never been before a court before and had been in the trade since the age of 15.

Mr Bailey said Chandler had pleaded guilty on the basis that he was ultimately responsible for checking the work of his staff and had not done so.

He said Chandler had trusted his colleague.

Mr Bailey also heavily criticised Lex, accusing the company of sending a lawyer to act for Chandler who in fact, he said, seemed more concerned with preserving the reputation of Lex.

Chandler was fined a total of £1,200 with an extra £300 in costs, and ordered to pay at a rate of £75 a week.