This is the way some scallywag dealers and brokers sell cars cheaply. Instead of channelling large numbers of orders through franchised dealers so the dealers can obtain bulk discounts, they pretend to buy cars for fleets and this means they have to register the cars to these fleets for six months. This can have serious implications for buyers. They have to declare to their insurer that they are not the owner of the car or their insurance could be void. And if the car attracts any ANPR speeding or parking or traffic light tickets, they go to the registered keeper of the car first, not to them, and that could result in an expensive delay. Because you were misled, there is a case precedent of a prosecution for this: The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations May 2008 (CPRs) contains a general prohibition against unfair commercial practices and, in particular prohibitions against misleading actions, misleading omissions and aggressive commercial practices. The Regulations are enforceable through the civil and criminal courts. This creates an offence of misleading omissions which would not previously have been an offence if the consumer had not asked the right questions. So if a salesman knows a car has, for example, been badly damaged and repaired and does not tell the customer, he could later be held liable if the customer subsequently discovered that the car had been damaged and repaired. A recent case precedent over Misleading Omissions under Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008/1378 was Regina (House of Cars) v Derby Car and Van Contacts Ltd, Derby Crown Court before HHJ Burgess on 12-6-2012. In this case the purchaser had been sold a car as new when it had been pre-registered to a fleet, and remained registered to that fleet, putting the purchaser in breach of Section 43c of the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 because he was using the car on the road but was not the registered keeper.