Auto-Repair Shop Operator Arrested

A man has been arrested for allegedly running an auto-repair swindle in the same location at which he was convicted of running a similar scam last year, Los Angeles City Atty. James Hahn said.

After learning there had been a warrant issued for his arrest, Robert Charles Wachter, 33, operator of ATCO Transmission on Laurel Canyon Boulevard, surrendered Tuesday to a detective in the Los Angeles Police Department’s Bunco-Forgery Division auto fraud detail.

Deputy City Atty. P. Greg Parham said Wachter was being held in the Van Nuys police station with bail set at $20,000. A return court date has not been set, Parham said.

The arrest warrant was issued last week after Parham, a prosecutor in the city attorney’s Consumer Protection Unit, presented evidence to a Municipal Court judge that Wachter violated his probation from an October fraud conviction.

In that case, Wachter was ordered to pay $1,080 in fines and costs and placed on 1 1/2 years probation after he pleaded no contest to making false and misleading statements, said Parham, who also handled that case.

The latest case, less than a year later, grew out of a routine undercover investigation by state Bureau of Automotive Repair agents of an ATCO Transmission advertisement offering a service price special.

On Feb. 13, an agent who posed as a customer said he found that the North Hollywood shop was being run by Wachter without a license, prohibited under the terms of his probation.

Wachter allegedly charged the agent for $550 of unnecessary work, some of which was not performed, Hahn said.

Investigators ordered the shop closed on Friday and informed Wachter by telephone of the warrant for his arrest.