Subscribe to trusted local news
If you are accessing this story via Facebook but you are a subscriber then you will be unable to access the story. Facebook wants you to stay and read in the app and your login details are not shared with Facebook. If you experience problems with accessing the news but have subscribed, please contact subscriptions@thestrayferret.co.uk. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.
- Subscription costs less than £1 a week with an annual plan.
Already a subscriber? Log in here.
14
Aug
Victim of Andrew Mearns fraud: 'To this day, I have not seen the £120,000 for my Porsche'
One of Andrew Mearns' victims who hoped the sale of his Porsche would fund his retirement has called for those impacted financially by the fraudster to be reimbursed.
The man, who wished to remain anonymous but lives in the Harrogate area, told the Stray Ferret the stress he has endured at the hands of Mearns — who was today (August 14) handed a two-and-a-half year jail sentence for 14 counts of fraud — can never be reversed.
But he hopes one day he might receive the money he is still owed.
The man approached Mearns some years ago when he was considering selling his Porsche 356C Cabriolet.
He said he trusted Mearns after the two met many years prior through a Porsche club.
Mearns was just starting out in the car world and, after opening the Gmund garage, the man said he “really respected what he had achieved”.
Mearns agreed to sell the car for “whatever he could get” in 2017, and pay the man £120,000 in return.
Mearns collected the man’s Porsche and stored it at his Gmund showroom at Nidd Valley Business Park in Scotton.
The victim told the Stray Ferret the market was “suppressed” at the time, but he felt the car “was in a safe place”.
'Something fishy was going on'
As far as the man knew, the car remained at Gmund unsold – until someone came knocking at his door in 2019 after “sensing something fishy was going on”.
He said:
Somehow this man had got my address. He told me he had swapped two cars and some cash for my car… that was the first I knew about my car being sold and to this day I have not seen the money for it. It was such a shock.
The two men went to the Gmund showroom to speak to Mearns, but staff told them the “garage was empty”.
They then went to Mearns’ home, where his wife Samantha answered the door.
The man alleges Ms Mearns told them she “knew nothing about” the situation. He said he did not have many dealings with Ms Mearns.
Ms Mearns was a Conservative councillor and aide to former Harrogate and Knaresborough Conservative MP Andrew Jones at the time. She had “significant control” of Gmund Cars Ltd until December 2018.
Ms Mearns told the Stray Ferret in 2020 she was “never interviewed in relation to any of the allegations”. She has never been accused of any wrongdoing.
Left to right: Andrew Jones, Andrew Mearns and Samantha Mearns.
The man, who said he is “just one of the people affected” by Mearns’ fraudulent schemes, told the Stray Ferret he hopes the assets stolen by Mearns are recovered and returned to the victims.
He added:
The stress that I have incurred because of the fraud and theft cannot be undone, but the financial implication should be rectified.
0