32 Arrested in Sting Aimed at Fraudulent Smog Checks : Pollution: Sweep covers L.A. County. Authorities say tens of thousands of phony certificates were issued.

In the largest enforcement effort since the state Smog Check program began in 1984, more than 100 investigators swooped down on 24 Smog Check stations, a taxi fleet and a used car dealership Thursday and arrested 32 mechanics and station owners on felony fraud charges for allegedly trafficking in phony vehicle smog certificates.

In the past year, the targeted smog shops issued an estimated 116,100 smog certificates, of which 80% are believed to be fraudulent. The apparently bogus certificates constitute nearly 3% of all certificates issued each year in Los Angeles County.

“It is important for everyone to recognize that the issuance of fraudulent certificates can undermine the Smog Check system,” James M. Strock, secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency, said at an afternoon news conference. “The best way to assure compliance with any environmental law is strict enforcement against violators. That is what is happening today.”

After six months of surveillance, investigators and technicians from a multi-agency task force that included the district attorney’s office, the state Bureau of Automotive Repair and the state Air Resources Board served search warrants, made arrests, seized equipment and closed down smog shops Thursday at locations from the San Fernando Valley to the South Bay.

In addition, the group served search warrants at a taxi fleet and a used car dealership, where investigators believed the “institutional purchase of fraudulent smog certificates” occurred, said Jim Schoning, chief of the Bureau of Automotive Repair.

Schoning said that in one instance, a smog shop owner sold certificates by telephone to a used car dealership 15 miles away, without ever seeing the vehicles purported to be cleared of emissions violations.

Eighty percent of the certificates sold by those arrested Thursday were marketed to institutional buyers, Schoning said.

The California Service Station and Automotive Repair Assn., an industry trade group, applauded the sting. The “raids represent exactly what we want to see,” said Dennis DeCota, the group’s executive director, in a written statement. “Those people who fraudulently conduct business should be swiftly eliminated from the automotive repair industry.”

The Smog Check program was designed to reduce the levels of hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide in the air. Hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides are the primary ingredients of smog. Carbon monoxide can directly damage human health.

In the eight years it has been in effect, the program has cut hydrocarbons by 19% statewide, according to a spokesman from the Air Resources Board.

The Smog Check system, through which all cars registered in California are checked every other year and upon sale, was originally envisioned as tamper-proof, said Joseph P. Charney, deputy Los Angeles County district attorney for environmental crimes and lead attorney in the investigation.

But “you have a system where there’s a real problem with potential fraud,” Charney said. “I have no doubt that fraud appears extensive and is eroding the efficacy of the program.”

While the charges filed Thursday were computer fraud and perjury, the issue at hand is environmental damage. The computer system that forms Smog Check’s backbone can be fooled, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Miller, and represents a conduit that “gross polluters” can slip through.

The so-called gross polluters--about 10% of the cars on the road--create 50% of the pollution in the air. The average clean car produces 3.4 grams of carbon monoxide and 0.4 grams of hydrocarbons per mile; the dirtiest cars spew out 80 grams of carbon monoxide and 25 grams of hydrocarbons per mile.

“A disproportionate number” of the cars issued phony smog certificates are probably gross polluters, Charney contends. But Schoning believes that Smog Check fraud does more than just environmental damage.

He points to three classes of victims: people who buy used cars thinking they have a legitimate smog certificate and are later faced with large repair bills; those who breathe the air befouled by polluting vehicles that slip through, and the honest proprietors of Smog Check facilities.

“This is the largest action yet taken against fraudulent smog certificate sellers,” Schoning said. “We think this reflects a careful and surgical approach to weed some of the bad apples out of a barrel that also contains a lot of honest people.”

In the past 15 months, the Bureau of Automotive Repair has initiated action against 25 to 35 facilities throughout the state for selling fraudulent smog certificates. Not all cases have been resolved.

Last June, Whittier mechanic Tony Capone was sentenced to four years in prison and fined $5,000 for faking smog certificates. Capone’s was the stiffest penalty yet meted out for tampering with the Smog Check system. Those arrested Thursday on charges of computer fraud and perjury could face up to three years in state prison on each count.

Although each station investigated during the sting operated in a slightly different fashion, there were some similarities. In general, the stations found a way to outsmart the computer system run by the Bureau of Automotive Repair.

A personal computer at each station is hooked up by modem to the bureau’s computer in Sacramento, constantly feeding smog test results. In cases of fraud, a potentially dirty car’s serial number is put into the computer, and the computer’s electronic probe is inserted into the exhaust pipe of a clean car, which is then tested.

While arrests for smog check fraud have been made statewide, it is believed to be widespread in Los Angeles County, which is home to 2,500 Smog Check stations and 40% of the state’s vehicles.

“Los Angeles is known as the Smog Check fraud capital of California,” said Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti. “The price is cheap, $50 to $60. If you go to the Bay Area, a fraudulent certificate costs hundreds of dollars. People come here to buy them.”

The sting comes less than a month before politically charged legislation to revamp the Smog Check program is expected to be introduced in Sacramento. Under the terms of the 1990 amendments to the federal Clean Air Act, the Smog Check program must be strengthened, in part to deal with the more technologically advanced cars sold today.