{"id":17916,"date":"2026-07-15T15:05:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T03:05:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=17916"},"modified":"2026-07-15T15:05:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T03:05:27","slug":"carporium-director-sachinthaka-nagasinghe-sentenced-for-odometer-tampering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=17916","title":{"rendered":"Carporium director Sachinthaka Nagasinghe sentenced for odometer tampering"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A motorist who paid a car dealer $24,000 for a Toyota RAV4 only discovered the odometer had been tampered with when they took it for a service more than a year later.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

It was during that service that technicians noticed the odometer reading didn’t match the car’s recorded service history.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The car’s odometer reading was 150,031km when it was sold at the car auction to Tauranga trader Sachinthaka Nagasinghe, the sole director of Sachis Holdings Ltd, trading as Carporium.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

But, when it was sold by Nagasinghe to the new owner three months later the reading showed 119,244km – a difference of more than 30,000km.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The service technicians referred their concerns to the Registrar of Motor Vehicle Traders through NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

An investigation by the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment (MBIE) then confirmed the odometer had been tampered with.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Two charges were laid under the Motor Vehicle Sales Act 2003 for tampering with an odometer without reasonable excuse, and for aiding and abetting the company in the offending.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Now Nagasinghe had bought the car back for the same price he sold it, and has appeared in the Tauranga District Court for sentencing where he was ordered to pay $1000 reparation for emotional harm. His company was also fined $5000.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

MBIE said in a statement released on Wednesday that Carporium sold the Toyota in February 2024 after purchasing it at an Auckland car auction in December 2023.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

It was in May 2025 during the scheduled service that the tampered odometer reading was detected.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Before sentencing, Nagasinghe agreed to buy back the vehicle for $24,000, matching its original sale price.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Bevan Yee, national manager of occupational regulation, a business unit in MBIE, said it was the first successful prosecution that demonstrates MBIE’s commitment to upholding the law and maintaining fair standards across the motor vehicle sales sector.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“This case sends a clear message that odometer tampering and other deceptive practices will not be tolerated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“Accurate vehicle information is fundamental to fair trading. When odometer readings are altered, consumers can end up paying more for a vehicle than it is worth and may be misled about its safety, reliability and maintenance needs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“Most traders do the right thing and deserve to operate in a marketplace where unlawful behaviour is identified and addressed. MBIE will continue to take enforcement action where conduct undermines consumer confidence and damages the reputation of the industry,” Yee said.<\/p>\n

Source: NZ Herald & RNZ<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A motorist who paid a car dealer $24,000 for a Toyota RAV4 only discovered the odometer had been tampered with when they took it for a service more than a year later. It was during that service that technicians noticed the odometer reading didn’t match the car’s recorded service history. The car’s odometer reading was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":17917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17916"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17918,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17916\/revisions\/17918"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}