Man Gets 3 Months in Car Sales Fraud Case

The former finance manager of the Gunderson Chevrolet dealership in El Monte was sentenced Friday to three months in jail and five years’ probation for conspiring to defraud customers.

Patrick Albert Fisher, 54, is expected to be allowed to serve the jail term through an electronic monitoring program, the district attorney’s office said.

Fisher was one of seven former Gunderson employees indicted in May on charges that they hid extra charges in sales contracts.

The dealership did not admit any liability when it entered into a multimillion-dollar settlement in April.

The dealership’s former general manager, James Michael Hoban, and five other former employees are awaiting trial in Los Angeles Superior Court.

As a condition of his guilty plea Nov. 27, Fisher agreed to testify against his former co-workers, prosecutors said.