SUNLAND : 3 Found Guilty of Mileage Rollbacks

The owner of a Sunland used-car dealership and two of his salesmen were convicted Friday of felony conspiracy charges for rolling back odometers on at least five cars they sold. San Fernando Superior Court Judge John H. Major, who handed down the verdict after a non-jury trial, sentenced each of the men to three years probation and ordered them to get out of the used-car business. They were also ordered to reimburse customers whose cars had been tampered with to show lower mileage. Sabri Abdelmassih, 54, the owner of Sunland Automotive Center; Ehab Markarios, 24, and Jorge Ortiz Moreno, 48, were arrested in April, 1989, after a customer discovered that the 1988 Corvette he purchased from the business had 70,000 miles on it, even though its odometer showed only 29,000 miles. The customer, William Zinser, found out about the rollback when Chevrolet service workers said their records indicated that the car had exceeded its 60,000-mile warranty, Deputy Dist. Atty. Steven J. Ipsen said. Zinser contacted the previous owner, who said the car had 70,000 miles on it when he sold it to Sunland Automotive Center. Zinser reported the rollback to state Department of Motor Vehicles investigators, who alleged that salesmen at the dealership rolled back odometers on at least four other cars before selling them, Ipsen said.