A woman “effectively paid twice” for her luxury car to preserve her credit reputation, a fraud trial jury has been told.

In February 2015 Anwen Williams decided to pay off £28,500 outstanding for an Audi car and dealer Gwyn Roberts, 50, told her to make a cheque out to his business and that he would settle with Audi, it was alleged.

“But in March, the following month, Anwen Williams received correspondence from Audi indicating she was in arrears,” said Matthew Corbett Jones, prosecuting at Caernarfon crown court on Monday.

“In the ensuing months she entered into protracted correspondence with the defendant who insisted it had been settled. She received notice that just six months of payments had been made, it was a cynical stalling tactic.”

It transpired that £25,000 was still owed to Audi and she paid it to clear the arrears.

Roberts has pleaded not guilty to a charge of fraudulent trading as Menai Vehicle Solutions Ltd in 2015 and to 24 charges of fraud, including that involving Anwen Williams.

The prosecutor claimed that Roberts had offered “absurd deals” to customers in a bid to prop up his Bangor-based business, which was later declared bankrupt.

Some customers had received good deals from him in the past “but the business had become a sham and he was determined to get his hands on their money whatever the cost.”

Mr Corbett Jones alleged that Roberts, of Dolgoed, Llandudno Junction, had taken thousands of pounds in cash and part exchange deals from some customers for luxury cars that did not materialise.

His business had been set up in 2008 and he had attracted a portfolio of customers when having worked for other dealerships, some of whom remained with him. But deals had been “too good to be true.” In some cases life savings of customers had been involved. It was anticipated that Roberts would say there had been health issues, problems with diesel emissions and a belief that the business would “weather the storm.”

But Mr Corbett Jones maintained there had been no real prospect of honouring deals.

One customer, Richard Hughes, had lost his BMW “and a staggering £53,000” but the Porsche sports car he was expecting was never delivered.

Roberts told police he intended to honour all the deals and claimed to be “incompetent rather than dishonest,” declared Mr Corbett Jones. The business closed in October 2015.

The trial is expected to last six weeks