PARIS – A local car dealership recently paid $274 in fines after state inspectors found that B & F Auto Sales did not reveal the history of a used vehicle to a buyer and sold a vehicle that did not meet inspection standards.
According to records at the violations bureau at the Lewiston District Court, the auto dealership run by Frank Landers was also fined for the same two civil violations in 2004. And, that same year, the state fined the business for failing to possess a transfer form, a civil violation that has to do with properly transferring a title to a new owner.
Deputy Secretary of State Doug Dunbar said that there is no staggered penalty associated with repeat violations.
The most recent infractions came after Danny Rock and his girlfriend, Theresa Webber, of Lewiston traded in their van for a used truck from the Ellingwood Road dealership Feb. 17.
A day after they drove off in the 1993 GMC Jimmy, the heater stopped working. Two days later, it began to have transmission problems, Rock said.
On Feb. 20, Rock said he took a drive with the mechanic in the truck and it kept jerking out of first gear into second.
“He told me it was OK, it was nothing, that it was play in the pinion gear. He told me it was a good thing, it was shifting good,” Rock said. “I knew it weren’t right. The next day I called the state trooper.”
After conducting an investigation, the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles issued two violations to B & F Auto Sales for failing to disclose the Jimmy’s history and for the bad inspection sticker. Rock said the vehicle was totaled a few years ago.
Several days after the investigation, Rock said Landers returned $1,400 to him on top of an additional $600 Landers provided him earlier to fix problems with the SUV. Landers also traded back the van. Rock said he originally swapped his van, a 1996 Dodge Ram valued at $4,000, for the Jimmy, which Landers was offering for $2,000.
“I feel I was taken advantage of, and made to feel like a fool,” Rock said. “I will never deal with him again.”
When Landers, who is named by state police as the manager of the dealership, was contacted soon after the investigation, he said he traded the GMC to Webber in good faith.
“Today everyone is trying to cause problems with somebody,” Landers said. “I still conduct everything I do with a handshake and that’s the way I’ll continue to do business.
“You’re only as good as your word,” he said, adding he’s been in the car business for 40 years.
The state police, which handles inspection sticker violations, also investigated the dealership and wound up suspending the license of the garage mechanic, Sam Hartzell.
“There was no administrative action” against the business, Sgt. Brian Scott, who supervises Maine’s motor vehicle inspection program, said. “We felt it was the inspection mechanic that missed the vehicle deficiencies.”
Hartzell’s license will be suspended for six months.
Scott said B & F Auto was licensed by the state last year to be an inspection station. He said this is the first time state police have investigated the auto dealership.
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