Man Sentenced to 46-Month Term for Rolling Back Used Car Mileage

A Newport Beach used-car wholesaler was sentenced Wednesday by a Los Angeles federal judge to a 46-month prison term and ordered to pay a $30,000 fine for altering odometers on nearly 1,000 vehicles that were later resold to unsuspecting consumers.

Lawrence Lee Campbell, 59, pleaded guilty last year to rolling back the odometers of used cars to greatly enhance their resale prices. The cars, bought at auto auctions, were mostly sold to dealers in the Norwalk area.

Keystone Ford in Norwalk was one of the victims, according to Ron Bach, an investigator with the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Bach said the vehicles in question were mostly pickup trucks. The scheme, Bach said, lasted from 1984 to 1989.

Campbell obtained California titles for the out-of-state cars, illegally created false mileages and then gave the phony papers to dealers. DMV investigators said that the dealers were also duped and that none were charged with wrongdoing.

Keystone Ford in Norwalk was one of the victims, Bach said.

Though Campbell was charged in the scheme with a 36-count indictment, he pleaded guilty last year to one count of odometer tampering, one count of false securities and one count of interstate transportation of forged or counterfeited sales documents.

DMV investigators said they are still trying to figure how to track down consumers hurt in the scheme.