Adams County Car Dealer Faces Charges For Auto Title Fraud

In November 2024, a young woman was driving her father’s car in Marysville, when police pulled her over, as they often do with inexperienced drivers. They asked her for the car’s registration, and she showed the police the paperwork she had. The police looked up the car registration information and found out that the car was not legally registered to the driver’s father. The father called the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to ask why the car was showing up as not legally registered for it, when he had bought it and filled out his portion of the paperwork several months earlier. It turned out that the dealership where he had bought the car had not completed the steps to legally register the car in the buyer’s name. This meant that the father did not legally own the car, even after he paid for it. Now the owner of the car dealership where the girl’s father bought the car is facing criminal charges for his alleged role in these auto title problems. If you are facing charges or under investigation for auto title fraud, contact a Pittsburgh white collar crime lawyer.

What Is the Difference Between Buying a Car and Owning One?

Unless you are lucky enough to win a car as a prize in a raffle or game show or to receive one as a gift, the first step is to gaining ownership of a car is to buy it, either by paying the full sale price to the seller or by paying a down payment and then signing a loan agreement to finance the rest. If you buy the car from a dealership, then the owner of the dealership is a dealer, meaning someone who has a business license to sell vehicles to customers. After that, you must register the title to the car. You do that with an agent, who has a business license to conduct title and registration transactions. It is possible for the same person or business to be licensed both as a dealer and as an agent.

In the News

Michael Lee Humbert, the owner of Ideal Auto Sales and Service in Straban Township, is both a licensed car dealer and a licensed auto title agent. More than a dozen customers allege that he defrauded them, though; one of these customers is the man whose daughter got pulled over in Marysville and discovered that the car was not legally registered to his name. Humbert, 45, allegedly misled customers to believe that he had completed the title and registration process, when he actually left the customers without legal ownership of the cars that they had paid for.

Contact Gary E. Gerson About Criminal Defense Cases

A criminal defense lawyer can help you if you are facing criminal charges for fraud crimes related to used car dealerships or auto titles and vehicle registration.  Contact the law offices of Gary E. Gerson in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania about your case.

Source:

local21news.com/news/local/car-dealership-owner-hit-with-over-350-charges-for-fraudulent-vehicle-sales-ideal-auto-sales-and-service-straban-township-dover-adams-county-pennsylvania-pa