Man jailed for selling former taxi

A local resident has been sentenced to six months in jail for fraud after he rolled back the odometer on a restored former taxi so he could sell it at a higher price, the Songjiang District People's Prosecutor's Office said Tuesday.

The defendant, surnamed Gao, bought the taxi, a Volkswagon Santana, for 23,000 yuan ($3,756) and refitted it to look like an ordinary sedan.

He also faked the car's mileage to make it more appealing to buyers, said Peng Shaohui, a press officer from the prosecutor's office.

Gao listed the car online as a secondhand Santana, but did not disclose that it had once been a taxi. His asking price was 40,000 yuan.

An interested buyer surnamed Gu contacted Gao to see the car in person. Gu was pleased with the vehicle's condition and bought it on the spot.

Gu agreed to pay for the car without its title because Gao promised to handle the ownership transfer on his own. When Gu didn't hear back from Gao after a few days, he got suspicious.

When he called Gao about the matter, Gao told him that the car had once been a taxi.

Old taxis are usually in worse shape than secondhand vehicles with the same mileage. "So a former taxi will fetch a much lower price than an ordinary car on the secondhand market," Peng told the Global Times.

Gu asked Gao for a refund but Gao only agreed to pay back half. Gu then called the police.

Prosecutors advised residents to ask for official and legal documents when purchasing a secondhand car.