Panorama City : 2 Charged With Car Repair Fraud

Following a sting conducted by undercover state agents, the owner and an employee of an automobile repair shop were charged Thursday with making unnecessary repairs, inflating costs and failing to provide repairs at advertised prices, according to the Los Angeles city attorney’s office.

Michael Roy Drummond Jr., 25, of Northridge was sentenced in Los Angeles Municipal Court after a no-contest plea to two counts of making false and misleading statements, according to Deputy City Atty. Mark Lambert.

Drummond, who worked at Young’s Automotive at 14540 Van Nuys Blvd. in Panorama City, was placed on three years probation. He was charged along with the shop’s owner, Boyd Jamieson Young, 25, of Winnetka, city officials said.

Young, who pleaded not guilty, was charged with two counts of theft, failing to provide a written estimate, failure to provide a customer with a proper invoice, and three counts of making false and misleading statements.

Young’s business advertised low prices for transmission, clutch and air-conditioning services in the Recycler, according to City Atty. James K. Hahn.

After reading the ad in the Recycler, an undercover agent from the state Bureau of Automotive Repairs took a 1979 Chevrolet pickup truck, on which a new clutch had been installed, to Young’s business for a transmission clutch diagnosis.

Drummond recommended installing a new clutch, according to Lambert, who said the state agent agreed and paid $265 for unnecessary parts.

Undercover state agents then took two more vehicles to Young’s and were charged each time for unnecessary services or work that was not done, Lambert said. On one occasion, an agent was charged for air-conditioning refrigerant that was not provided. In another case, an agent was charged for unnecessary installation of a clutch master cylinder, according to city attorneys.