Pair Get Jail Time for Phony Smog Certificates

The owner of a South-Central auto shop was sentenced to seven months in jail and his son was sentenced to three months after they admitted producing fake smog certificates.

Antonio Baltazar, 48, owner of Tony’s Auto Sales at 3900 N. Figueroa St., and his son Marco, 20, each pleaded guilty Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court to one count of computer fraud. They were also sentenced to three years’ probation and ordered to relinquish their smog check licenses.

The two men were scheduled to begin trial on four counts of perjury and computer fraud when they entered the pleas.

The elder Baltazar’s sentence was the longest jail time ordered so far in a string of criminal cases that stemmed from the biggest crackdown on phony certificates since the state smog check program began in 1984. About 40 auto repair shop operators and mechanics in Los Angeles County were arrested in December.

Most of the defendants falsified certificates by hooking up low-emission vehicles to the smog machine’s exhaust measuring device and entering identification data for other “dirty” cars, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors alleged the elder Baltazar went a step further by soliciting customers for his phony certificates.

Baltazar allegedly approached an Alhambra car dealer and offered to provide the dealer with smog certificates for his entire fleet, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Rob Miller. Baltazar reportedly told the car dealer the vehicles didn’t even need to be brought to his shop.

The car dealer reported Baltazar to the Bureau of Automotive Repair and agreed to help investigators in a “sting” operation to nab him. Feigning interest in Baltazar’s offer, the dealer called Tony’s Auto Sales, spoke to Baltazar’s son and ordered a number of smog certificates, Miller said.

The certificates were delivered to the car dealer a few hours later, according to Miller. Investigators confirmed through a surveillance videotape and smog check machine data that the documents were fabricated, Miller said.

So far, 15 of the several dozen defendants have struck plea agreements with prosecutors in which they pleaded guilty or no contest to reduced charges. Most of them would have faced the possibility of several years in prison if convicted of the original charges filed against them.