CAR dealers who place illegal private adverts in motoring publications have been warned their scam is at an end.

Chiefs at City of York Council's Trading Standards department have unveiled a new computer which can detect patterns of numbers used by traders who try to sell vehicles in motor magazines and supplements.

Advertisers in North Yorkshire receive and check thousands of calls, every week, from motorists looking to sell their cars.

But a small minority of traders, who attempt to sell their cars privately to avoid paying tax, slip through the net.

Legitimate sales are also covered by Trading Standards Acts which give consumers protection if things go wrong.

But private sales are not and buyers are left stranded if their newly-bought vehicle is not what they expected.

To combat this, Trading Standards officers have developed their computer system. It can scan 300 A4 pages of adverts in only ten minutes.

It detects and logs recurring numbers in all of the region's motoring publications. And those which appear an excessive number of times are checked to make sure they are not traders masquerading as individual sellers.

Head of Trading Standards, Colin Rumford said the scheme was almost foolproof. "Our detection rates have gone up 1,200 per cent, compared to the last two years, since it was introduced," he said.

"The system has been developed with a £50,000 grant from the DTI. The great thing about it is, it can only get better.

"As well as detecting recurring numbers, from early next year it will also alert us and feed information to us about patterns.

"Our warning to dealers is that if you try and cheat, you will be caught. This system is 98 per cent successful and has taken the human error out of detection."

Peter Marsland, senior enforcement officer, added: "We have already identified four offenders in the York area.

"This system is a great addition to our existing detection methods."

Evening Press head of advertising and commercial sales, Avril Oliver said: "We accept adverts in good faith, though we do make checks when accepting them.

"We welcome this action by Trading Standards because it will help protect both the buyer and the reputable car dealer."

Updated: 09:42 Saturday, October 20, 2001