FAIR DEALS: Deputy Mayor of Southampton Derek Burke with the trades and their certificates.

EIGHTEEN car dealers have made a formal commitment not to rip off customers under a new scheme to improve standards creat-ed by the council's Trading Standards department.

The fair trade scheme was launched this week to encourage dealers not to sell potentially dan-gerous cars or cars with altered mileage.

Complaints about second-hand cars are by far the biggest cause of concern for trading standards experts. They accounted for 800 calls last year alone.

Deputy Mayor Derek Burke presented certificates to those garages accepted onto the scheme.

Councillor Paul Jenks told deal-ers: "The image of car dealers is linked to characters such as Boycey from Only Fools And Horses. That is not the case with the majority of traders who provide a quality service. We want to give the public con-fidence that when they walk into a fore-court and see the Fair Trade Scheme logo they know they are in a qual-ity establishment."

He said the scheme was the first of its kind in Southampton and other companies should be encouraged to join.

Paul Atkinson, at Scotthall BMW, said: "We joined because we think it is a very commendable initiative and we are delighted to be part of such a positive programme. The motor trade has suffered from a poor reputation for many years due to a small minority of traders and this is a great opportunity to show our commitment to the public."

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