Woman wins payout over bogus 'Bentley'

A classic car enthusiast has won £94,000 in damages after paying £430,000 for a vintage Bentley, unaware that only one small part of the car was genuine.

Judge Anthony Thornton QC ruled that the car had been so heavily worked on that it "was no longer capable of being accurately described as a 1930 Bentley Speed Six".

Mercedes Brewer from Rutland, Staffordshire, bought the car through restorer Stanley Mann, who had rebuilt it in his own garage. But when she decided to sell the car, it was valued at only £300,000-£350,000 by a Bonhams auction house expert, considerably short of the £550,000 it might have been expected to raise had its parts been genuine and original.

Mr Mann has also been told to pay Mrs Brewer's court fees of about £300,000.