A JAILED salesman who sold defective cars and told customers he would kill them and burn their house down will serve a further seven months in prison.

Cwmbran man Robert Knight, of Mountain Road, ran RK Transport on the Llantarnam Industrial Estate and “would be pleasant and professional – until he achieved a sale,” prosecutor Lee Reynolds said.

Cardiff Crown Court heard a catalogue of occasions when Knight would be asked to fix people’s cars after they had broken down or developed faults, sometimes just days after being bought.

But regularly he would launch into expletive-ridden tirades and tell people to get off his property or he would prosecute them.

Knight, aged 41, pleaded guilty to 15 charges at the same court of engaging in unfair commercial practice and one count of supplying a dangerous product last June.

He swore repeatedly in front of a mother and her four-year-old son after she complained about the state of the car she had recently bought from him.

On another occasion he told a couple that they “didn’t know what he was capable of” and that he would burn their house down and kill them after they dared to complain about their new vehicle.

When some customers grew tired of their missed calls going unanswered, they would take their cars to another garage, be told of problems and then told to go back to RK Transport to get it fixed.

But then Knight would try to play a trump card. He would say they had breached their 28-day warranty and mention the Trading Standards Act – “which doesn’t exist,” Mr Reynolds said.

As the Argus has previously reported, father-of-seven Knight was already serving a three-year sentence for two sexual assaults on a teenage girl and an assault, having been jailed for those last month.

Sentencing Knight to more time in prison, to be served once the three-year term has been served, Judge David Wynn Morgan said: “What [customers] got from you in the end was not just defective vehicles but treatment in a way that is completely and wholly unforgivable.”

The judge added the sentence would have been for 14 months had Knight not already been jailed.

Defending Knight – who has a long string of previous convictions, including one for attempted rape – Nick Gedge said he was undergoing a lot of stress when he lashed out at customers.

Mr Gedge said Knight was worried over an investigation into money laundering, which eventually came to nothing, and that he was struggling with personal problems, including deaths of close relatives and the breakdown of his marriage.

Knight is now in a new relationship and is attending anger management courses at HMP Parc in Bridgend.

Mr Gedge added Knight has planned to marry again in December 2017 – but that date will now need to be postponed.

A further hearing to determine how much Knight and his company will need to pay to victims in compensation will be held later this year.