Monthly Archives: May 2008

Peter Moutafis the owner of Riverhead Suzuki, also known as Moutafis Motors and Prestigious Motors, has been charged with filing fake warranty claims for vehicle repairs. According to the police these repairs were never performed. Police claims that Moutafis, 35, the car dealership owner created bogus records of mechanical failures on the used vehicles with extended warranties bought at his dealership. Later without the owners’ knowledge the dealership owner fraudulently billed warranty companies for repair work done by the dealership. Police reported that yesterday Moutafis, of 181 Cranford Blvd., surrendered to Seventh Precinct detectives and was charged with insurance fraud, grand larceny, falsifying business records, and possession of a …

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A 33-year-old Erin Mills man and a Sarnia woman are each facing 15 charges under the Motor Vehicle Dealers Act after damaged cars were sold to unwary buyers. A joint investigation Ontario Motor Vehicle Industry Council (OMVIC) investigators and Halton Regional Police led to yesterday’s arrests. The OMVIC regulates the car dealer industry in Ontario. The investigation was sparked by a complaint in late 2007 about a man who advertised a car for sale on the internet. When he met a prospective customer on Glen Erin Dr. in Mississauga, the man showed the car and indicated he had been the original owner. He provided a false Used Vehicle Information …

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The California Department of Insurance reported that Robert Andrew Nelson, 44, a resident of Cathedral City, California, was arrested on April 28 for allegedly defrauding his insurance company of $26,000. On October 28, 2007 Nelson filed a false police report and knowingly presented a fraudulent insurance claim. He reported that on October 27 he hosted a gathering of about a dozen quests. He claims that his guests were still at his home, when he went to sleep at about 8 p.m. Nelson claims that in the middle of the night someone stole his 2005 Expedition from his driveway and then returned it. According to Nelson he found the wrecked …

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Police’s vehicle fraud investigation unit has recently informed that Albert Walta was charged with felony and misdemeanor counts for selling vehicles he did not own, as well as for not paying taxes to the state Department of Transportation. Walta, 45, is the owner of a Scranton Motorcar Co., a used car dealership located at 626 W. Lackawanna Ave. In early July the fraudulent practices of Walta came to an end when one of his customers, Joe Schappert, informed police that he bought a Chevrolet truck on consignment from the Scranton dealership. Walta gave him a check, which was later bounced, according to a criminal complaint filed in Lackawanna County …

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Yesterday, Michael Wolfe, a car dealer was found guilty under the federal Excise Act of seven counts related to a GST scheme. Wolfe, who had no previous criminal record, was sentenced to two years in jail and was taken into custody at B.C. Supreme Court for defrauding Ottawa of that amount in a long-running GST fraud. He was also fined $7 million. Later a bail was granted pending an appeal and Wolfe was released. The case of fraud involved two co-accused, charges against whom were stayed. One is the former owner of the Rags to Riches used-car lot, Sameer Mapara, who is sentenced for a first-degree murder. The other …

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When you are buying a car or a truck and you are not paying cash for the full purchase price car dealer sells you two separate things – the vehicle itself and the means to pay for it. The customers almost always test drive the car, however, they don’t always test their financing. One of the things the car buyer should remember is that he/she is paying one amount for the car and another amount for the lease. Your car dealer probably gets separate profit from each of these items. If you are not well informed you can become a victim of one of the tricks dealers use to …

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An auto lease fraud class action against Autowest Dodge and its parent Auto Nation was certified as a class action last week in San Francisco Superior Court. The class claims that the dealer failed to disclose the itemization of capitalized cost in the precise manner required by law. According to the class the dealer altered the lease agreement after the consumer signed it and left the dealership. This is an unauthorized alteration of documents. Lease agreements are filled in at the dealership in several copies and most of the customers think that all of these copies of the lease agreements are identical. However, this is far from being a …

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Previously, some dealers falsely told their customers that theft protection cost only, say, $3/month, when in reality the cost was $35/month. The dealer was hiding the true of the monthly payment on the loan. This fraudulent practice is very common among dealers and is known as loan packing. Under the new Car Buyers Bill of Rights which was adopted in California in July, dealers cannot misrepresent the cost of debt cancellation insurance (GAP protection), service contracts, surface protection, and theft protection products, called after-market items. __________________________________________________ [ To Learn more our services and areas of practice, please visit our website at dealerfraud.org/our-blog]

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Previously, wrecked, damaged ,flooded and poorly repaired vehicles were sometimes sold as “certified.” However, now a new California law prohibits the sale of used cars as certified if they had rolled back odometer reading, had been in a flood or had been previously wrecked (unless properly repaired). California car dealers can’t also sell certified cars “as is.” Pursuant to the new law if cars previously damaged in a wreck or flood and not properly repaired and if the repairs did not make the car safe, then the car cannot be sold as “certified”. Also if the repairs of wrecked, damaged and flooded cars substantially impaired the use of the …

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When you are buying or leasing a car these days you will have to sign purchase or lease agreements. The car dealer will give you the exact copy of the documents you’ve signed. However, your dealer will probably be completing his own file – the Deal File, sometimes called the Deal Jacket. What documents does the dealer keep in the Deal File? Most important the Deal File will contain information on the transaction and the profit maid by the dealer. The ‘recap sheet’ or sales summary, vehicle invoice, credit application, DMV information, repair history, inspections, finance papers, trade-in calculations, different documents relating to after-market items and other internal documents …

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