Westminster Man Charged in Odometer Fraud Case

A federal grand jury has charged a California, man and a Utah man with buying high-mileage motor vehicles in the Los Angeles area, turning back the odometers and reselling the cars here.

The indictment handed up Thursday charges George L. Anderson of Westminster and Alan J. Kajma of Salt Lake with 28 counts of mail fraud and of making false odometer statements.

The vehicles were bought in 1984-85 through the California Auto Dealers Exchange in Anaheim and the Los Angeles Dealer Auto Auction in Rosemead, federal prosecutors said.

Anderson and Kajma “would reset and alter the odometers of these used motor vehicles in order to indicate mileage figures lower than the vehicles’ actual mileages,” the indictment said.

The vehicles were than resold to at least seven car dealerships in this area, the complaint said, and Anderson and Kajma “would induce the buyers of these vehicles to pay higher prices than they would have otherwise.”

Most of the suspect cars had their odometers turned back by about 35,000 miles between the time they were bought in Southern California and resold in Utah, prosecutors said.

But one car, a 3-year-old Oldsmobile, had an odometer reading of 99,377 miles when sold at the California Auto Dealers Exchange, the indictment alleged. When it was bought six days later by Hayes Brothers Buick, Salt Lake City, the odometer read 39,387 miles, a difference of 59,990 miles.