Car dealership sells stolen vehicles worth $2M leading to charges for Mississauga man: police

Over 80 charges have been laid against a car salesman from Mississauga after police say he helped sell over $2 million worth of stolen vehicles at a Toronto dealership.

The Toronto Police Service says the charges come from an investigation dubbed Project Warden that led officers to look into auto sales by salespeople working in Toronto.

Police say they discovered two salesmen had been selling stolen cars to customers who thought they were buying legitimate used cars.

Investigators say the stolen rides were purchased from numbered companies using funds from the dealership.

Some of the companies were owned by the accused, who would create fake sales agreements using “clean” Vehicle Identification Numbers, also known as VINs.

The dealers also altered Carfax reports to match the fraudulent vehicle information to give buyers “the appearance of a legitimate purchase.”

“A stolen vehicle would then be delivered to the buyer in what appeared to be a legitimate vehicle purchase,” police said of the scam.

But unknown to the buyer, the VIN they received did not match the vehicle, and some of the vehicles were falsely registered to people not listed on the sales documents, police said.

In all some $2,188,000 worth of stolen rides were sold and police say they recovered over 100 stolen vehicles in the crackdown. A 32-year-old man from Mississauga and a 35-year-old man from Barrie were arrested and hit with a combined 176 charges as a result of Project Warden.

Fadi Zeto, 32, of Mississauga has been charged with over 80 offences including 20 counts of forgery, 20 counts of utter forged document, and 20 counts of fraud over $5,000. He was scheduled to appear in court on Oct. 22.

Harris Bocknek, 35, of Barrie, has been charged with over 90 charges including 22 counts of forgery, 22 counts of utter forged document, and 22 counts of fraud over $5,000. He is scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 17.

The elaborate sales scam has police reminding buyers to beware when purchasing a used vehicle. Police say to get your own vehicle history reports when buying a used car as re-vinned or stolen vehicles will often have discrepancies in their vehicle histories.

Anyone with information about these incidents can contact TPS by calling 416-808-2222. Anonymous tips may also be provided to Crime Stoppers by calling 1-800-222-8477 or visiting www.ontariocrimestoppers.ca.

When you contact Crime Stoppers you stay anonymous, never have to testify, and could receive a $2,000 reward.