A pensioner has been left more than £1,600 out of pocket after a garage which botched a repair job on his son’s car has still not paid him compensation nearly a year on.

David Roper took General Motors in Harrow Road, Leytonstone, to court in April, which ordered the company to pay the £1,652 costs incurred by the 65-year-old in repairing the faults the company made to his son’s Citroen C5.

But when bailiffs turned up at the garage last week to take payment, they were told the company no longer operated at the premises, having been replaced by another firm called ‘Car Care 2’.

Mr Roper, of Sheredan Road in Highams Park, said: “It’s incredibly upsetting. The whole time we have been extremely stressed, it’s gone on and on and it’s been very expensive.

“My wife has rang General Motors and they told her it was still them, not anyone else, that was based there.”

The Guardian found no record online of ‘Car Care 2’, while General Motors is still listed at the address.

When this newspaper has tried to contact the garage no-one has responded.

Mr Roper took his son’s Citroen C5 to General Motors in July last year when the clutch needed replacing.

When the vehicle began jerking while driving he took it back to the garage, but the 65-year-old claims mechanics said it was just the new parts settling in.

However, when in September the problem was continuing he took it back to General Motors, who could not figure out what was wrong.

He then took it to a specialist garage in Colchester, which found that the jerkiness was caused by a metal pipe on the turbo having been refitted incorrectly, causing it to bend.

After General Motors refused to meet the repair costs, Mr Roper took its boss to Northampton County Court, which found in favour of the pensioner and ordered the firm to meet the costs.
But Mr Roper is still out of pocket.

He said: “I just want them to pay us what they owe. We have nowhere to go from here, it’s just so difficult.”