Photo credit: CBC
Two men are facing a total of 176 charges for an alleged stolen vehicle operation running out of a legitimate Toronto car dealership.
CBC reports Detective Dan Kraehling as saying that “Altogether, their activities have caused financial loss of approximately $2.16 million, which affected both the dealership and unsuspecting members of the public.”
According to the police, beginning in August, investigators learned that two men allegedly used their positions to buy and sell stolen cars to unaware customers under the guise of legitimate sales.
The vehicles would be bought from numbered companies, which in some cases were owned by the two men, using funds from the dealership, according to a police press release.
The accused would then create fake sales agreements using “clean” vehicle identification numbers and alter Carfax reports to match the fraudulent vehicle information, which would make purchases look legitimate, according to police.
A stolen vehicle would then be delivered to the buyer under the guise of a legitimate purchase. The buyer’s VIN would not match the vehicle they had bought, and some of the vehicles were falsely registered to people who weren’t listed on sales and documents.
However, the dealership caught on to what was happening several months after the two men had begun their operation, Kraehling said. They were subsequently reported to the police.
A 35-year-old Barrie man and a 32-year-old Mississauga man now face a host of charges, including multiple counts of forgery and fraud over $5,000.
