Akif Butt, 39, of The Knoll, Calverley, sold nine cars at inflated prices by reducing dashboard mileages.

The father-of-three deliberately bought high mileage vehicles for low prices from Leeds Motor Auctions Ltd, Bradford Crown Court heard on Friday.

Odometer readings were then invariably altered and sold at a price that was on average 20 per cent more then they were originally bought, said prosecuting counsel Christopher Batty.

One such vehicle was a BMW 528 which had 294,000 miles on the clock when bought by Butt for £1,725.

A few weeks later it was resold with a reduced 88,173 mileage to customer Steve Ottley for £2,800.

The court also heard that some of the vehicles were in poor condition.

Butt pleaded guilty to nine counts of selling cars with reduced mileage, and six counts of applying false trade descriptions to cars between September 2005 and July 2006.

He was jailed for six months on each count to run concurrently.

West Yorkshire Trading Standards discovered the scam after investigating complaints visiting Butt on July 25 2006 at his garage in Shipley, which went by several names including Cars R Us.

Butt was interviewed twice, but several days later sold a Rover 218 that had had its mileage reduced by 19,000 miles to an unassuming customer.

Judge Christopher Prince criticised Butt's "audacity" to continue to dupe customers despite the investigation.

He add that he had a public duty to jail Butt, who had not "learnt his lesson" despite previously being charged with similar offences almost seven years ago.

Butt was that time handed a conditional discharge.

"These are not high value vehicles, but important to people who were doing the buying," said Judge Prince.

"People are entitled to receive the best value they can reasonably negotiate.

"You give the trade a bad reputation."

He added: "This was a simple and determined course of action, with which you set out to cause loss to others, simply so you could profit yourself.

"You thought profit was more important than anything else."