Last updated 16:35, Thursday, 21 August 2008

A man who built a supposedly amphibious car which was condemned by a judge as a “floating coffin” has been given a suspended prison sentence.

Tim Dutton, 60, was also ordered to do 150 hours unpaid community work and
pay £28,500 compensation to the Lake District businessman who bought it from
him.

He was also made to pay £2,000 towards the £52,000 costs of the prosecution
brought by Cumbria trading standards.

Dutton had been found guilty at Carlisle Crown Court of breaking fair
trading laws by selling a vehicle which he claimed to be amphibious when it wasn’ t.

Windermere businessman Adrian Cowdroy bought the eight-seat vehicle hoping
to use it to provide family tours “straight from the mountain roads, down the
slipway and onto the water”.

But he had to scrap his plans when he found the supposedly amphibious
vehicle leaked and was so unstable it was not fit for use on either land nor
water.

The vehicle – a specially converted long wheelbase Suzuki Jimny - was
condemned as unroadworthy in a series of land-based inspections and refused a
licence to be used on the lake when inspectors found it was not watertight.

Dutton, who claims to have sold 8,000 vehicles “of various types” in a
40-year career as an engineer, was found guilty of consenting or conniving at”
supplying an amphibious vehicle whose claim that it was “for the purpose of
carrying passengers on land and/or water” was false. 

Judge Paul Batty QC described him in court today as “glib and
dishonest”.

He said that if the vehicle had ever been used to give passengers trips on
the lake it would “in all likelihood have created an absolute tragedy”. 

Dutton, whose six-month prison sentence was suspended for two years, says he
will now have to sell his run-down two-bedroom flat in Park Crescent,
Worthing, Sussex, to pay the court bill.

Mr Cowdroy says his life has been ruined by what happened.
He is having to live in a hostel for the homeless because he is £60,000 in
debt after paying for the vehicle and not being able to use it earn any
money.