Automax, Dollar Rent a Car Sales agree to changes in procedures
Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN, Texas – FORT WORTH – The owner of two Arlington used car dealerships who was previously charged with falsifying vehicle emissions test results has entered into an agreed judgment requiring him to comply with Texas law.
In July, the Attorney General’s Office charged Hussein Mahrouq, Mahrouq Enterprises International Inc. and MEI Auto Repair with unlawfully using a company-owned inspection station to falsify vehicle emissions testing results. Mahrouq’s dealerships, Automax and Dollar Rent a Car Sales, conducted their emissions tests at a company-owned testing station called A Quick Inspection. According to state investigators, the defendant used emissions data from vehicles with clean emissions as a substitute for vehicles whose mechanical condition might have caused them to fail the tests.
The Office of the Attorney General worked with the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) to jointly investigate vehicle inspection stickers that appeared on used cars and trucks sold by Automax and Dollar Rent A Car Sales – which were never actually subjected to emissions testing.
Today’s judgment requires the defendant companies – which no longer operate the inspection station named in the State’s enforcement action – to submit a list of inspection stations they now rely on for emissions testing. NCTCOG will then check these stations’ databases and inform Automax of any clean-scanned vehicles it finds. The defendant must then notify purchasers who bought vehicles with falsified inspection stickers and retest those vehicles at the defendant’s expense. The defendant also agreed to pay $50,000 in civil penalties and attorneys’ fees to resolve the State’s enforcement action.
A typical clean-scan operation involves a vehicle inspector attaching testing equipment to a “clean” vehicle that already passed the clean air inspection. Then, the inspector enters an untested and potentially non-compliant vehicle’s identification number (VIN). As a result, an untested vehicle passes its inspection, receives an inspection sticker and is capable of being resold to buyers, who think they are purchasing a properly inspected and approved vehicle.
By investigating and reviewing data collected by emissions testing machines, NTCOG investigators can uncover illegal testing schemes, as in this case. The testing equipment, which interfaces with each vehicle’s onboard diagnostic equipment, helps investigators uncover when a vehicle has been issued another vehicle’s testing results and inspection sticker.
Inspiring quest there. What happened after? Thanks!
The real crooks in this process are the North Central Texas Council of Governments and it’s Executive Director Mike Eastland and Deputy Director Monty Mercer. These guys have kickback schemes set up with businesses all over the metroplex (its common knowledge), and if you don’t pay their fee, they will set up you up to fail. Acts just like the gangs in New York and the Mob in Chicago. I suspect Eastland and Mercer couldn’t extort enough money from Hussein, and therefore needed to get him out of the way before he ratted them out.
Crooks, I tell you, those two are just crooks!!!!!!!!!!!!
I agree with Ron Leavitt. If innocent people purchased a vehicle from these criminals, being led to believe the vehicle is/was in good condition (good enough to pass an inspection), then the seller aka CRIMINALS, should be liable for all cost associated in getting these vehicles up to standards to pass emissions. The corporation should be sentenced to; serious fines per vehicle tampered with and set aside (in a government designated account) all the money received for each vehicle sold, with penalty and interest, payable to the purchaser, administration fees, penalty and interest to paid the state for the holding account, on top of the legal fees and revoked or suspended dealers license. Just in case the vehicle is a LEMON. This way the corporation cannot file bankruptcy, get off scot free, and cause further damage to the buyer. The buyer will have the means (money) to search for another vehicle (under the same conditions at the time of the “LEMON” purchase). The seller will be responsible for the vehicle “LEMON”, cost to lawfully fix or for the final disposition of the vehicle.
Good news that they caught these cheats. The ruling seems kind of weak though. The dealer should be libel for any repairs required to bring these vehicles into compliance with the emissions requirements for these vehicles as well.