He might just be being a numpty and not spotting it?
You could ask him to scan or digitally photograph every page and send it to you, then scour them yourself and bag a bargain
I've had some luck like that before, on a Rover 216 I bought an ex.
On sale at an independant dealer, it had about 80k on the clock. A big fat pile of service history receipts stuck in the back of the original book and I dug through them to see when the cambelt had last been done (salesman had only looked at the stamps). I spotted that it had had a brand new engine put in by Rover at 60k!
Naturally I didn't mention it, bartered him down on what was already actually a good price and drove away
Was an excellent car. Needed the walnut dash insert replacing (lacquer cracked) and it was then mint condition.
Rad split when she came down to visit and collect some things a couple of years later after we'd split up. Meant she had to stay overnight unplanned so I could fix it the next day (ex sex
)
I think it was then killed in a crash about a year later?
(I digress...)
14.5 yrs old and no belt change