A man who wound back the odometer of a used Commodore by more than 150,000 kilometres before trying to resell it for nearly twice the price has been placed on a good behaviour bond in the Adelaide Magistrates Court.

Following action taken by Consumer and Business Services (CBS), 35-year old Minghui Jin of Lightsview admitted to interfering with an odometer and dishonest dealings with documents.

The court was told that in February 2023, Jin bought a 2017 VF Holden Commodore with an odometer reading of 221,589 kilometres from Wagga Wagga for $15,000.

Within a week, Jin advertised the same car for sale on Facebook Marketplace for $27,500, by which time the odometer read only 67,559 kilometres, using a falsified logbook to try and validate the lower milage.

The car was sold for $26,500 and it was only when the consumer took the car to be serviced that the car’s true service history was revealed.

The court heard the consumer stopped the payment and arranged for the car to be returned, with Jin trying to sell the car again on Facebook Marketplace within a fortnight.

Magistrate David McLeod described Jin’s offending as ‘blatant, dishonest, sophisticated and pre-meditated’, but declined to record a conviction – releasing him on a two years good behaviour bond with supervision. Jin was also ordered to complete 150 hours of community service.