Authorities in the UK have been targeting illegal tyre sales in recent months and as part of this initiative a tyre dealer from Grantham in Lincolnshire felt the full force of the law last week.

Luke McKenzie of Moss Tyres received a nine month suspended sentence, 150 hours community service and will have to pay £26,000 in fines and fees as he was found guilty on 16 counts of possessing and supplying dangerous products as well as one count of supplying an incorrectly-sized spare tyre and another of providing false information.

Moss Tyres sold new and part-worn tyres and was subject to a test purchase operation by Trading Standards, with support from TyreSafe and the National Tyre Distributors Association (NTDA). This operation was a result of a number of complaints from customers and led to the conviction of Mr McKenzie in February.

Stuart Jackson, chairman of TyreSafe said, "This sentence represents a clear message to tyre retailers. As an industry body committed to safety, and with members who make up a large proportion of the industry, we are pleased to see that motorists are being protected from illegal and sub-standard products that will endanger lives.”

Many of the tyres seized from Moss Tyres had serious safety defects that could have had life-threatening consequences according to investigators.

Part worn tyres are legal in the UK but must meet standards that are more stringent than for new tyres in terms of tread depth and be free of cuts, lumps or any other damages that will compromise  structural integrity, as well as passing an inflation test. Tests by the British Tyre Manufacturers' Association have found that braking distance in wet weather of a tyre with only 1.6mm of tread depth is almost 12m longer than a new tyre from 50mph.