Personally, I'd rather go and look at the vehicle as it stands in front of me. Past MOT history has little sway with me; I just feel it's overplayed.
I am sure we've all bought vehicles in the past that HAD an MOT but were dire when we started looking around. I have certainly worked on people's 80 with shocking faults. Chunks missing from discs and a 27mm socket in one caliper instead of a brake pad and zero handbrake function at all. Past MOT passes don't show how thorough the MOT was - that's my point really chaps.
I'd think that this one would need less that 5 mins inspection know if it was a minter or not. But even at that, £24k? Anyone?