Head of Car Subleasing Firm Sentenced to 123 Days in Jail

A man who ran an Anaheim firm that subleased automobiles without the consent of the owners has been sentenced to 123 days in the Los Angeles County Jail and three years’ probation for his June misdemeanor convictions on tax evasion and business code violations.

Eustace T. Strickland, 53, of Los Angeles was also fined $2,000 and ordered to stop subleasing autos and to stop repossessing or brokering cars without a license, said Lauren S. Arky, a deputy Los Angeles city attorney.

Strickland earlier had been ordered to pay $25,416 in back state income taxes. He admitted that he failed to file a 1985 state income tax return with the intent to evade taxes, and he did not contest 16 other charges of state law violations connected with his subleasing operations. Pleas of no contest are treated as guilty pleas for purposes of sentencing.

Strickland and his National Security Financial Services in Anaheim, one of a series of short-lived subleasing firms, obtained cars from people who no longer wanted the vehicles but did not want to pay hefty fines for canceling the leases.

Strickland then would sublet the cars to people who generally could not finance a purchase because of bad credit or a lack of credit. In six months, National Security collected an estimated $400,000 in nonrefundable service fees for arranging subleases for about 400 customers. It folded in April, 1985.

The practices of National Security led to a civil lawsuit in Orange County, investigations statewide and a new state law that bans subleasing of automobiles without consent of the owners, usually bank leasing firms.

Strickland was ordered to start serving his jail term Oct. 14, Arky said.