State Officials Search Wilson Ford as Part of Fraud Investigation

State and local law enforcement investigators and Department of Motor Vehicles officials spent several hours Sunday night searching the Wilson Ford automobile dealership in Huntington Beach as part of an investigation into alleged fraudulent car sales, state officials said Monday.

When the investigators left the dealership on Beach Boulevard near Ellis Avenue, they took with them computer data and other records, DMV spokesman Gary Quinliven said.

“It is an investigation of allegations of fraud in the sale of vehicles,” Quinliven said.

Neither Quinliven nor officials with the state Justice Department, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office or the Huntington Beach Police Department would divulge details of allegations, the scope of the investigation or when it began.

Representatives of all four agencies took part in the search, which began at about 7:30 p.m. Sunday and was still in progress more than five hours later. The group included 11 investigators from the DMV alone.

A Justice Department spokesman said Navy personnel were also on the scene, but only because some of the alleged fraudulent sales were to people in the Navy. The Justice Department referred all further questions about the investigation to the DMV.

Wilson Ford, which closed nearly four hours earlier than normal Sunday because of the search, was open Monday. Officials at the dealership would not speak to reporters, however, and in response to queries, they handed out copies of a press release that said little more than business was being conducted as usual.

Marshall Mintz, an attorney for the dealership, said he did not know the reason for the search, what the investigators were looking for or what they took.

Several Reviews

“We have always complied with requests for information,” Mintz said, adding that the investigators were still on the scene at 1 a.m. Monday when he finally left and went home.

The Wilson Ford investigation is among several ongoing reviews of Orange County car dealerships.

In January, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office filed a civil lawsuit against the Fairway dealership group, which has four showrooms in Fullerton and Placentia. The suit alleges that Fairway salespeople failed to tell customers in 29 separate instances when they were being sold cars that once had been in rental car agency fleets. Those cases stemmed from a review of registrations and sales by the DMV.

Last week, as part of that suit, a Superior Court judge ordered Fairway to cease the practice and explicitly inform customers of the histories of cars they buy. Investigators said then that at least four other dealerships were suspected of the same offense, which is a violation of state consumer protection laws. The names of the other dealerships were not disclosed.

Wilson Ford is one of the better-known auto dealerships in Southern California because of its frequent late-night television commercials featuring Ralph Williams, a well-known pitchman and former auto dealership owner.