San Diego

A rental car company has been convicted on 28 counts of false advertising and criminal contempt, and the firm and its president have been ordered to cease business within 60 days, City Atty. John Witt said Friday.

Rent A Car Cheep No. 3 Inc., at 1747 Pacific Highway, and company president Chang Jason Lee also were fined $9,000, and Lee was placed on four years probation by Municipal Judge Charles L. Patrick.

Lee was also ordered to perform 24 days of community service.

Witt’s consumer and environmental protection unit filed criminal charges against Lee and Rent A Car Cheep in December after receiving “numerous complaints about the business.”

Customers complained of being charged as much as $90 for a one-day rental that had been advertised at $18 a day. It is the second time Witt’s office has prosecuted Lee and Rent A Car Cheep for false advertising.

In 1989, Lee and his company were ordered by Superior Court to pay $15,000 in restitution to customers and ordered not to commit “any future violations of California advertising laws.”

In the most recent case, Judge Patrick found that the defendants “contemptuously violated” numerous provisions of the court’s order.

Lee was unavailable for comment.