A MAN has been jailed but his two sons spared immediate prison sentences following a £370,000 car clocking scam.

Teesside Crown Court heard yesterday how the three members of a Darlington family inflated the value of 39 vehicles by winding back mileage by as many as 200,000 miles.

Alfred James Welch, 59, of Whinfield Way, was aided by his sons, Alfred, 34, and James, 27.

Shaun Dodds, prosecuting, said buyers came from all over the UK after vehicles, some write-offs, were tampered with and sold between £2,000 and £4,000 above their true value.

He said the trio handed over forged service documents or simply offered to forward them in the post, but mechanics were able to retrieve the true mileages from the vehicles’ computers.

Mr Dodds said one woman paid £26,000 for a horsebox with 26,000 miles on the clock which was later found to have done 135,000.

He said Welch Sr posed as a businessman, under the alias Mr Goodfellow, to sell a Mercedes Benz Sprinter van with 27,000 recorded miles that had in fact done 250,000.

The court heard that when one buyer called to complain, James Welch threatened him and said: “I’m from the Gypsy clan, I will find you to have it out with you.”

Police traced the men through mobile phone numbers in the adverts or the debit card details used to place them.

Welch Sr admitted the offences put him in breach of a 39-week sentence, suspended for two years, for a £270,000 mortgage fraud, in 2009. Representing him, Robin Pattin, conceded Welch was involved in all of the sales. He said he had been trying to provide for his family and repay a Proceeds of Crime order from the mortgage fraud.

The suspended sentence was activated to run concurrently with the two years.

Robert Spragg, for Alfred Welch, of Scale Hall Lane, Lancaster, said the father-of-four was at a financially low ebb when he was asked to help his father.

Mr Spragg said he worked six days a week selling mattresses legitimately to support his family.

He was given 12 months in prison, suspended for two years, and 200 hours of unpaid work for his involvement in 11 of the transactions.

Julian Smith, for James Welch, of Barton Mobile Home, in Morecambe, Lancashire, said his client’s wife was expecting a child in August and he too was involved at the behest of his father.

He was given six months in prison, suspended for two years, and 150 hours of unpaid work for being involved in five sales.

No orders for costs were made pending a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing.