Treadz Auto owner accused of vehicle consignment fraud facing 164 charges

A Calgary man has been charged with 164 fraud and theft charges after a lengthy investigation into his vehicle consignment company.

It's alleged that 94 people agreed to sell 116 vehicles on consignment through Treadz Auto Group from 2011 to 2014, each of them paying $299 and signing a contract.

• Treadz Auto's provincial business licence cancelled by regulator
• Treadz Auto complaints greater than police realized

Police say 78 of the vehicles were allegedly sold to unsuspecting buyers while Treadz failed to compensate the original owner for the vehicle sale, and in some cases also failed to pay off the liens associated to the vehicles.

It's estimated the losses from these vehicles added up toapproximately $1.8 million.

The owner of the now-defunct company is also alleged to have re-registered 62 vehicles in the company's name using fraudulent documents.

"In some instances, registration documents were completely fabricated," police said in a release.

Treadz then allegedly used some of those vehicles to get a loan from a credit company for about $484,000. That loan was never repaid, police say.

Court date set for July 15

The auto consigner also sold some of the vehicles to unsuspecting third parties, police say, leaving either the consigners potentially liable for the debt, or the new owners at risk of having the vehicles seized.

The credit company was able to recover 27 of the vehicles under the Fair Trading Act.

"However, rather than leaving citizens at a loss, the company accepted the financial loss and returned the vehicles back to the owners," police said.

Those vehicle owners and the credit company are estimated to have lost over $2.2 million.

Sean Patrick O'Brien, 47,has been charged with 89 counts of fraud over $5,000, 71 counts of theft over $5,000, and one global charge each of trafficking in property obtained by crime, using a forged document, counterfeiting a mark and fraud over $5,000.

His next court date was set for July 15.

Last year, several of the alleged victims launched a $5-million class-action lawsuitagainst Treadz and theprovince's automotive industry watchdog, theAlberta Motor VehicleIndustry Council (AMVIC).

One of the victims,Romeo Orantes Gomez, also launched a case in small claims court in 2014, but says nothing happened as the company went bankrupt.

"So someone else is driving the vehicle that I'm still paying [for] and nothing happened," Orantes Gomez told the CBC on Friday.

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