A used car garage has closed after its owner appeared in court following an investigation into the sale of unroadworthy vehicles.

Highline Performance Cars (formerly known as Brownhill Garage), in Bradford Road, Birkenshaw, now stands empty and the proprietors have left the area.

Last November, the Telegraph & Argus reported how 100 vehicles at the garage - run by Tony and Susan Heppenstall - were examined in a swoop by police, West Yorkshire Trading Standards and Vehicle Inspectorate officers.

Faults were found including cars with faulty brakes, fluid leakages, faulty lighting, tyres and dangerous parts.

Following the raid, Tony Heppenstall was charged with three counts of offering for sale unroadworthy vehicles. He was fined £1,000 on each count and ordered to pay £500 costs in his absence by Dewsbury magistrates when he failed to appear at the hearing on May 30.

Trading Standards officer Dave Lodge said: "We think the operation has been a great success. It was a good example of enforcement agencies working closely together to achieve a result. We are particularly pleased with the level of the fine and obviously the magistrates realised the severity of this offence."

In March 2001, Heppenstall and his wife were disqualified for ten years from acting as company directors in an action brought by the Insolvency Service.

Councillor Andrew Palfreeman (Con, Birstall & Birkenshaw) said he was relieved that the garage had now closed.

"Over a two-day period, the premises were emptied, but no-one seems to know where they have gone," he said.

"It looks much better now he has gone, because they were not just selling cars from there, but settees and other goods on the street. We now hope the owner of the site might wish to sell it to a builder to put houses on, since the former Kenmore Caravan site next door to it is being developed."

Sergeant Alan Kaye, Dewsbury divisional road traffic commander, said his officers had attended the garage on a number of occasions. "The police's objective was firstly to make sure that any vehicles which were being advertised for sale were being done so in a roadworthy condition and secondly that Bradford Road, outside the garage, remained free from obstructions," he said.

"Now that the garage has closed, the situation inside and outside of these premises will have improved. We are pleased with the outcome of the investigation into events leading up to the court case and are also grateful to local residents and councillors for bringing this to our attention."