A car dealer who sold a Rolls-Royce to a Plymouth man for £8,500 after falsely claiming it had belonged to Lord Snowdon and Lord Grade has been sentenced to 140 hours' community punishment and ordered to pay £8,500.

Alexander Entwistle was warned by the judge he was on a 'slippery slope' which could lead to prison next time.

Entwistle was earlier convicted by a jury at Plymouth Crown Court on two counts of obtaining property by deception from Clifford Elliott, a partner in a wedding transport hire firm, over the sale of the 20-year-old Silver Spirit model.

He hand-wrote the names of the two lords in the car's service book prior to the sale, the jury was told.

Before the trial 30-year-old Entwistle, from Well Lane, Gayton, Wirral, Cheshire, pleaded guilty to three Trading Standards offences relating to magazine advertisements for the Rolls-Royce.

The adverts, placed in February and March 2002, described the car as having a full service history, as being 'fastidiously maintained' and as an 'excellent, unmarked example.'

In fact, the car had 10 previous owners, a falsified service history and around 24 defects of varying severity, prosecutor Russell James told the court.

Entwistle later pleaded guilty to a fourth Trading Standards offence at Chester Crown Court. The charge related to a Rolls-Royce which he described as 'being highly maintained and an excellent example' in an October 2002 magazine advert.

The car was sold for £6,700 in November 2002 but broke down four times as its new owner tried to drive it home. Tests later showed the Rolls-Royce had 14 defects, two of which were 'safety critical,' Mr James said.

Sitting at Truro Crown Court, Mr Recorder John Williams sentenced Entwistle to a 140 hour community punishment order for the two offences of obtaining property by deception. For the Trading Standards offences admitted in Plymouth the judge ordered Entwistle to pay a £1,000 fine, plus a £1,500 fine for the offence admitted in Chester. He ordered the car dealer to pay £6,000 costs.

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