THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, November 15, 1994 TAG: 9411150279
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
The Department of Motor Vehicle's much ballyhooed raid of Hampton Roads automobile dealers five months ago has produced little more than a list of minor infractions, mostly for paperwork violations.
The agency has released a list showing fewer dealers were cited and fewer charges were brought than it had earlier announced.
The list shows that most of the 16 dealers cited had three violations or fewer, and many were for such minor things as failure to post business hours or failure to complete a temporary transport tag.
``This is much ado about very little, if anything,'' said Don Hall, executive director of the Virginia Automobile Dealers Association. ``It's an administrative issue. It does not represent any fraud on the dealers' part, and consumers were not in any way, shape or form affected by it.''
Many dealers have fared well in court since the summonses were issued. Only six have been convicted of misdemeanors, and those have paid fines of $25 to $1,800.
Many charges were dismissed altogether. Other dealers have cases under advisement, with no guilty verdicts.
Prosecutors in Norfolk and Virginia Beach have said they will not press felony charges, calling the cases mostly paperwork violations.
DMV's director of investigations, Charles E. Murphy, agreed that the most common violations - possession of open titles - do not affect customers, but may cheat the state of some tax money.
It is not, he said, much ado about nothing, no matter how the cases have gone in court.
``The dealers are screaming all over the state,'' Murphy said. ``If it's not such a big deal, what are they screaming for?''
The investigation began this spring with complaints from military personnel of some dealer ripoffs. It culminated June 27 when 30 investigators from DMV and the Navy raided dealers in Norfolk and Virginia Beach. They spent four or five hours poring through records at many sites.
In the end, 16 dealers were charged with 143 misdemeanors. DMV originally announced that 19 dealers were charged. The agency also said originally that 230 additional charges were ``pending,'' but they were never brought.
For 4 1/2 months, DMV refused to list the dealers cited or the charges. The agency finally did so last week after The Virginian-Pilot and Ledger-Star filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act.
The list shows that the dealers were charged with a wide range of violations, all misdemeanors.
At one extreme, a dealer on Virginia Beach Boulevard was charged only with failure to post business hours. That was dismissed.
At the other extreme, a dealer on Little Creek Road was charged with 39 counts of possession of open title. A judge fined him just $25.
``That's something we can't control,'' said Murphy, the DMV investigator. ``When you make a charge, you're at the mercy of the court.''
The most common charge was possession of open title, which means that dealers did not formally take title to cars given to them at trade-in. Several dealers were cited for multiple violations - one for 39 charges, one for 28, one for 14.
The majority of dealers, however, were cited for three or fewer violations, mostly minor. Six cited dealers are on Little Creek, five on the Virginia Beach Boulevard.
At least one dealer who was cited - Gene Perry of S&L Motors - said he does not blame DMV for doing its job. Investigators spent four or five hours checking records at his lot. His was the dealership charged with failure to post business hours. Perry said he has seen many fly-by-night dealerships in his 20 years in business.
``Little Creek Road had a bad reputation for the Navy and its basically true,'' Perry said. ``But they (DMV) threw all of these dealers in the soup pot together. I say single out the bad ones.''
All dealers contacted said they were caught on purely technical matters.
The raids have had one noticeable result: DMV is now going around the state educating dealers on how to run their businesses. Hall said dealers welcome the effort.
``We're happy to play by any and all rules,'' Hall said. ``Just do us a favor: Let us know what they are.''
KEYWORDS: DIVISION MOTOR VEHICLES CAR DEALER DEALERSHIP by CNB