Luke Nicolas Lorraine and Semir Jasic face court for selling used cars with changed registration and altered odometer readings

They duped consumers by reselling used cars at double their value – after knocking 150,000km off the odometers – but these backyard car dealers had an astonishing excuse when they were hauled before a magistrate.

Semir Jasic, left, and Luke Nicolas Lorraine, right, outside the Adelaide Magistrates Court. Picture: AAP.

They duped consumers by reselling cheaply-bought used cars at double their value – after changing their registrations and knocking more than 150,000km off their dashboard odometers.

But on Tuesday, Luke Nicolas Lorraine and Semir Jasic asked a court to write off their actions as stupid “embellishments” because “everyone lies in car ads”.

Lorraine, 31, of Klemzig, and Jasic, 26, of Northgate, faced the Adelaide Magistrates Court after pleading guilty to multiple counts of unlawful car dealing and false advertising.

They admitted that, after meeting at their local gym in 2016, they sold a number of cars on Gumtree and Facebook Messenger without a dealer’s licence.

Lorraine, a former soldier and two-time Afghanistan veteran, stumped up the finance to buy Nissan Pathfinders and Toyota Hilux four-wheel drives at auctions interstate.

He and Jasic – a truck driver – then arranged for them to be repaired, insured under other people’s names and advertised online.

Zoe Thomas, for Consumer and Business Services, said the cars’ registration and odometers were “changed to conceal their histories”, netting the duo $114,786.

Lorraine, a former Australian Army soldier, claimed he was motivated by wanting to bolster his pension. Picture: AAP.

Jasic’s counsel said the duo made “little to absolutely no profit” from the sale of the cars. Picture: AAP.

One car’s odometer read 109,000km but it had actually travelled 275,000km, while a second read 168,000 when it had really been driven for 376,000km.

“The cars were sold for approximately double what they were worth … (the scheme) was successful, it was profitable and it was quite sophisticated,” she said.

“If a customer found out (the truth) by accident, they made swift attempts to purchase the vehicle back to avoid complaint or detection.

“They then had the audacity to readvertise them, still misrepresenting the number of kilometres they had driven.”

Ms Thomas said the advertisements contained claims like “been in the family for five years” and “commuter vehicle”.

“These are the sort of statements a purchaser wants to read, wants to hear, when they’re buying a second-hand vehicle privately,” she said.

Ash Bihendi, for Lorraine, said his client was “very embarrassed” and “deeply regrets” his attempt to bolster his disability pension.

“He should have sought financial advice rather than take part in this,” he said.

Michael Woods, for Jasic, said the severity of the offending had been “overpitched” and the duo had made “little to absolutely no profit”.

He said the odometers had been replaced, not “wound back”, conceding his client should have informed buyers.

“What probably is the gravamen of the offence is the embellishment of the history so that a buyer might be enticed … he did it to make the cars more attractive,” he said.

“He justified it by saying ‘everyone lies in car ads’ … this was a couple of boys who stupidly tried to make a couple of bucks and stepped over the line.”

The state’s chief magistrate, Judge Mary-Louise Hribal, will hear further submissions in March.

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