After the disappearance of all cars and office equipment from the prominent Imlay St business on January 16, several angry customers have been in touch with details of recent dealings with the car yard.

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Andrew Duchesne of Wolumla paid a $5000 deposit on a new Toyota Camry in late December, but less than a month later the car yard is closed and there’s no indication he’s getting any money back.

“I went in on December 29 as I was interested in the end of year runout sales,” Mr Duchesne said this week.

“We made a deal but I was told it could be up to four months before I could get it. That wasn’t too much of a worry but he asked for a $5000 deposit.

“I thought that was a bit much for just a holding deposit but I paid it.”

Mr Duchesne then went on holiday to New Zealand for two weeks.

“When I got back a mate called me to ask if everything was okay [with the new car purchase] and told me ‘I just drove past and it’s all empty and shut up’.”

He said he has called Fair Trading and ASIC (Australian Securities and Investments Commission) for advice and wonders if his deposit – and his prospective new car – is now lost to him.

“I’m not impressed with Toyota either – they just said it wasn’t their problem.”

It was the same for Sydney woman Keri Murphy, who has yet to recover a $1000 deposit after a car was never delivered from the company.

Ms Murphy said that on November 17, 2018, her daughter paid $1000 over the phone by credit card as a deposit for a vehicle she was purchasing from Eden Motor Group via an advertisement on Carsales.com.au, but the vehicle was never delivered.

“After the deposit was taken we were informed that it was running rough and they were fixing the fuel injectors. This should have been discussed before the deposit was taken,” Ms Murphy said.

“The dealership went ahead and actually replaced the fuel injectors and said the car would be on the truck for delivery the next week.”

But there was no car and Ms Murphy contacted Eden Motor Group again. She said it was quite difficult “as they were not taking our calls or even returning them so it took a few times to get through”.

She was told they were going to detail the car and it would be delivered the following week.

“Another week later and still there was no car,” Ms Murphy said.

“My daughter contacted them again on the Monday and said it had to be delivered by Friday at the latest. Again there was no car so when she called for the last time, said she had given them so many chances and enough was enough and she wanted her deposit back.”

But a week later there was no sign of the deposit.

Ms Murphy became concerned when there was no money returned but she saw the same car, a Nissan Navara, back up for sale on Carsales. She said it re-sold for the same amount around the end of December.

“We were told my daughter would not get her deposit back because she cancelled the deal,” she said.

She has contacted Fair Trading after attempting to get in contact with Eden Motors without success.