Used car dealer buys $257,000 worth of cars — and every check bounced, NC cops say
The former manager of a car dealership is facing charges after being accused of writing thousands of dollars worth of bad checks to buy vehicles, North Carolina deputies said.
The man, who court records show was a manager at Greenville Auto World, wrote several worthless checks totaling more than $257,000 to buy several used cars, according to a Jan. 31 Pitt County Sheriff’s Office news release. Court records show the man was embroiled in a bankruptcy case while deputies said he was still writing bad checks.
He faces a felony count of obtaining property by false pretenses greater than $100,000 and two felony counts of obtaining property by false pretenses, according to deputies.
The man bought seven vehicles from Greenville Auto Brokers using worthless checks June 13, deputies said. The total for the cars was $147,800, according to the sheriff’s office.
An involuntary bankruptcy petition — which the Georgia Bankruptcy Law Network calls “very rare” — was filed against Greenville Auto World filed for bankruptcy ten days later on June 23, according to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. The Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition said the business owed more than $2.8 million for money that was loaned or defrauded.
Over a month later, deputies said the man was sold a vehicle from Hines Crossroads Motors for $31,290, but again, he wrote a check for money he knew wasn’t in his bank account.
Deputies reported finding three more bad checks worth $78,181 in total for three cars in their investigation.
Another involuntary bankruptcy petition was filed against the manager personally on Aug. 18, saying he owed primarily business debts, according to court records. The debt claims in his personal case totaled more than $3.5 million, per court records.
Scott Kirk, the man’s lawyer in his personal bankruptcy case, declined McClatchy News’ request for comment on the former car dealer’s charges. The case is still pending, court records show.
Greenville Auto World is under new ownership and is in “no way associated” with its former manager, the company said in a Feb. 1 statement. Since going out of business last year, Greenville Auto World became part of the DRIVEhereNow.com network, which owns five dealerships in the area, the company said.
“We decided to use the same DBA name since the service and sales department had such loyal customers and the cost of signage replacement was extremely high,” Greenville Auto World said in its statement.
The company said it has been helping in the business’ bankruptcy case to “collect for the investors that were affected.”
The former car dealer was booked in the Pitt County Detention Center under a $100,000 bond, deputies said.
Greenville is about 65 miles southeast of Raleigh.
This story was originally published February 2, 2024 at 12:55 PM with the headline "Used car dealer buys $257,000 worth of cars — and every check bounced, NC cops say."
