TyreSafe, the UK’s leading tyre safety group, has voiced concerns about the number of dangerous and illegal part-worn tyres being sold to motorists across the UK.

Following its own undercover investigation which sourced 50 part-worn tyres from online and high street retailers, TyreSafe found that more than a third of part-worns sold had illegal repairs, tears or punctures that had been botched or ignored. Independent tyre expert Ted Foreman, who carried out the inspections, said: “In many cases, these tyres look great. They have loads of tread and could fool you into thinking they’re a bargain. “But when you buy them, you inherit their dodgy history – every time they ran up a kerb, every accident, every time the owner drove on them under-inflated.”

Furthermore, a study by TyreSafe found that not only were new tyres safer, they also offered better value as the cost per usable mm of tread for part-worn tyres was £6.33 whereas the equivalent cost for a new tyre was 16 per cent less, at just £5.32 per mm.