The service technicians referred their concerns to the Registrar of Motor Vehicle Traders through NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi.<\/p>\n
An MBIE (Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment) investigation then confirmed the odometer had been tampered with.<\/p>\n
Two charges were laid under the Motor Vehicle Sales Act 2003 for tampering with an odometer without reasonable excuse, and for aiding and abetting the company in the offending.<\/p>\n
Nagasinghe appeared for sentencing in the Tauranga District Court, where he was ordered to pay $1000 in reparation for emotional harm. His company was fined $5000. <\/p>\n
MBIE said in a statement today that Carporium sold the Toyota in February 2024 after buying it at an Auckland car auction in December 2023.<\/p>\n
In May 2025, the tampered odometer reading was detected. <\/p>\n
Before sentencing, Nagasinghe agreed to buy back the vehicle for $24,000, matching its original sale price.<\/p>\n
Bevan Yee, the national manager of occupational regulation, a business unit in MBIE, said it was the first successful prosecution that demonstrated MBIE\u2019s commitment to upholding the law and maintaining fair standards across the motor vehicle sales sector.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis case sends a clear message that odometer tampering and other deceptive practices will not be tolerated.<\/p>\n
\u201cAccurate vehicle information is fundamental to fair trading. When odometer readings are altered, consumers can end up paying more for a vehicle than it is worth and may be misled about its safety, reliability and maintenance needs.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost traders do the right thing and deserve to operate in a marketplace where unlawful behaviour is identified and addressed. MBIE will continue to take enforcement action where conduct undermines consumer confidence and damages the reputation of the industry,\u201d Yee said.<\/p>\n
Brianna McIlraith is a Queenstown-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the lower South Island. She has been a journalist since 2018 and has had a strong interest in business and financial journalism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The service technicians referred their concerns to the Registrar of Motor Vehicle Traders through NZ Transport Agency Waka…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[138,260390,3936,2082,260392,111,139,69,170270,260391,5161,38535],"class_list":["post-526608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-carporium","tag-director","tag-for","tag-nagasinghe","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-odometer","tag-sachinthaka","tag-sentenced","tag-tampering"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}