2 Arrested in Odometer Tampering Investigations

The owners of a Van Nuys used-car dealership and a North Hollywood auto repair shop were arrested Wednesday in connection with unrelated schemes in which used cars were illegally sold with rolled-back odometers, authorities said.

In separate raids, teams involving Los Angeles police and investigators from the Department of Motor Vehicles and the California Highway Patrol swept through the two businesses Wednesday in search of evidence of odometer tampering.

Bob Davis, owner of Bob Davis Used Cars at 6050 Van Nuys Blvd, Van Nuys, and Nestor Dones, who operates Car Craft Automotive, 107066 Vanowen St., North Hollywood, were arrested on suspicion of grand theft, said Steve Torres, DMV special investigator.

Davis, a 64-year-old Toluca Lake resident, was being held at Van Nuys Jail in lieu of $5,000 bail. Dones, 36, of Burbank, who also goes by the name Henry Benzon, was held at Van Nuys Jail in lieu of $12,500 bail.

Police said in addition to repairing cars, Dones admitted to the commercial sale of cars without a license to do so. The DMV may revoke Davis’ commercial permit to sell cars, Torres said.

In both cases, authorities began investigating the businesses after receiving anonymous tips, said Los Angeles Police Detective Robert Graybill, head of the Police Department’s San Fernando Valley Auto Theft Task Force.

“We have evidence in both of these cases that these are ongoing criminal activities. There appears to be a pattern in both,” said Richard Carrillo, DMV investigator assigned to the task force. “Our operations today were to put them out of business and protect the public but also to get more information.”

At Car Craft Automotive, authorities discovered a 1987 El Camino that had been reported stolen in Northridge on Oct. 30. The truck’s vehicle identification number had been replaced with that of a 1985 El Camino, police said.

Police impounded another vehicle in which the odometer had been removed from the dashboard and was found on the back seat, Carrillo said. Six other vehicles with suspicious odometers and paperwork also were impounded from the repair shop, he said.

At Bob Davis Used Cars, authorities impounded four of the eight cars that were for sale on the lot after it was determined that “half the cars we found on his lot probably had their odometers spun,” Torres said.

“We found a Chevrolet Caprice with an odometer reading of about 40,000 miles,” he said. “But when we called the previous owner of the car, he said it read approximately 80,000 when he sold it to Bob Davis.”

In both cases, police said, the business may have been responsible for selling cars with fraudulent mileage readings to hundreds of unwitting customers in recent years. But the extent of the alleged fraud will remain unclear until authorities complete their investigation, Torres said.

“We do a complete history and contact all the former owners and ask them what the mileage was at the time they sold it,” Carrillo said. “We establish a paper trail to determine that an act of fraud has actually occurred.”