Local News in Brief : Countywide : Suspect in Car Swindles Sought by Authorities

Authorities are looking for a man who they believe swindled seven people out of their luxury cars, worth a total of $300,000, in Orange, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara counties.

The con man is believed to be Henry John Bender, 41, whose last known address was in Santa Ana, said James Barnes, a state Department of Motor Vehicles senior special investigator.

Authorities know of at least seven victims who sold luxury cars to a man who paid them with stolen cashier’s checks, then turned around and resold the cars, Barnes said.

The man answered newspaper advertisements placed by people selling their cars, such as Mercedeses and Porsches.

“He’d ask what color it is, how many miles are on it and then will say, ‘Oh, that sounds like just what I want. What’s your bottom line?’ ” Barnes said.

He usually bought the cars on weekends so that the sellers wouldn’t discover the checks were stolen until it was too late.

The sellers would give the man titles to the cars, and he would use counterfeit driver licenses with the owners’ names to resell the cars to dealerships, Barnes said.

The last reported incident occurred on Aug. 12, when a man bought a Mercedes from an Orange resident with a stolen cashier’s check for $54,000, then resold it to a car dealer in Newport Beach for $48,500, Barnes said.

Bender is described as 5 feet, 9 inches tall, about 180 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes.