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A Norfolk-based car dealer has hit out at trading standards for taking his company to court in a case “with little or no feasible chance of success”.

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Desira Group was accused of selling an unroadworthy car at auction, but a judge ruled after two-day trial that the car was in fact road legal – leaving trading standards to foot the court bill.

Stuart Stone, Desira managing director, said his business had been left out of pocket by the case too, despite having been vindicated by Wednesday’s judgement.

Trading standards’ costs include £29,000 for Desira’s legal bills, which will be paid from central reserves.

The county council’s head of trading standards said yesterday it would consider its response to similar cases in the future.

The car in question, a nine-year-old Ford Ka, was purchased in April 2010 at an auction in Wymondham. When the car was taken for its MOT it failed on six counts and the owner reported Desira to trading standards, who decided to prosecute after examining the car themselves.

But independent assessors at the trial said the car was in roadworthy, meaning Desira had committed no offence.

Mr Stone said he was “lost for words” that the case had made it to court.

“When Trading Standards experts assessed the vehicle, we should have been given the right of reply. We could have concluded the condition of the car and agreed it then.”

Even if the car had been unroadworthy, the terms and conditions of the auctions place liability for roadworthiness with the buyer, and have been a statutory defence for sellers “for as long as the industry has existed”, he added.

“We as a company have done nothing wrong or different from the rest of the industry for the past 30 years. We’ve been dragged into a process we should never have been involved in.”

Shaun Norris, Norfolk County Council trading standards manager, said the council was “disappointed” at the judgement.

“We brought this case as having had the car assessed by qualified professionals it was judged to be unroadworthy and we felt there were sufficient grounds to suggest that the seller had failed to fully make the buyer aware of the car’s unroadworthy condition,” he said.