A KENT car company has been fined a total of £12,000 by a court for failing to service vehicles adequately on three occasions.

Trevor Bradbury, director of Swale Motors trading as SMC Ford, pleaded guilty to three charges brought by Kent Trading Standards at Sittingbourne Magistrates' Court.

The court heard that Trading Standards officers had introduced a number of faults to vehicles which were then taken for service at SMC garages in Eagle Way, Stonebridge Road, Gravesend, and at Crown Quay Lane, Sittingbourne.

The firm was fined £4,000 for each offence and ordered to pay £250 costs. Three other charges were dropped.

The court heard that magistrates could have imposed heavier fines, but "robust and vigorous measures" taken by SMC to stamp out problems on the workshop floor and guilty pleas had led to lesser penalties.

Magistrates heard that two offences happened at the Gravesend branch and one at Sittingbourne over a six-month period last year.

Brendan Thorpe, prosecuting, said that 10 faults were introduced but only two detected when a Ford Fiesta was taken for 37,500 miles service in July last year to the Gravesend garage.

Blown bulbs, split rear windscreen wiper blades and insufficient pressure in the spare tyre were among the faults introduced.

In December another vehicle was similarly treated and taken to the Gravesend garage ,and later the same month, another vehicle was taken to Crown Quay Lane, Sittingbourne .

Staff there failed to spot a faulty bulb in the boot, the only deliberate flaw of nine that was not rectified.

Speaking on behalf of the firm, Darryn Rollinson said none of the faults introduced had been life-threatening such as affecting steering, braking or the engine. The company had co-operated with Trading Standards officers resulting in "robust and vigorous checks" being implemented.

In one instance, the mechanic had suffered a number of family tragedies, including the recurrence of his child’s leukaemia. In another incident, a technician was sacked for signing off an apprentice’s work without double-checking it.