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Used Car Dealer Charged with Odometer Fraud

EXETER — State police say a used car dealer in Luzerne County cheated customers and a credit union by falsifying odometer readings on 16 cars he sold in t...

EXETER -- State police say a used car dealer in Luzerne County cheated customers and a credit union by falsifying odometer readings on 16 cars he sold in the last two years.

He now faces fraud charges.

A federal agency claims almost a half million cars are sold every year with false odometer readings.

But the Luzerne County dealer charged Thursday says he is not a criminal and has done nothing wrong.

Joe Appel owns Avenue Auto Sales in Exeter. He claims he's operated an honest business for nine years. Thursday, he was slapped with 16 counts of fraud.

"This could make me feel like I did something wrong, but I didn't," Appel said.

The UFCW Credit Union began raising questions last year when it repossessed a car it financed for an Avenue Auto customer. It found the car had far more mileage than the dealership reported.

The credit union asked state police to investigate. Troopers found 16 cases where the dealership under-reported the mileage of vehicles.

"Did you ever knowingly commit fraud?"

"Never did I knowingly commit fraud. Never," Appel said. "I think it was a miscommunication with, literally with paperwork. There was no malicious intent at all."

Joe Appel was arraigned is West Pittston Thursday morning. And that's where we obtained paperwork from the state police that tells a different story than Appel does.

Police investigators traced the histories of the 16 vehicles sold by Avenue Auto and repossessed by the credit union.   Newswatch 16 Investigates ran the numbers. We found the average miles reported by Avenue Auto was a little over 56,000.  The police vehicle history report finds the actual mileage was 104,000. That's a difference of 86 percent.

Appel says the discrepancy results from the miles his vehicle buyers drove before these vehicles were repossessed.  A state police source says the agency would not have charged Appel, if that was the case.

"There was no gain for me," Appel said. "And I just can't believe that I'm in this situation. I work so hard here."

State police say the real victims are the credit union, which is stuck with repossessed vehicles of little value and other used car dealers, who say their profession gets a bad rap.

Joe Appel says he's an honest dealer, and promises he'll be vindicated in court.

 

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