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SALT LAKE CITY — A car dealer faces multiple charges after police say he failed to deliver titles on vehicles purchased at his now defunct Salt Lake City car lot.
Adam Shupe, 22, of Clearfield, is charged with 21 counts of failure by a dealer to deliver certificate of title or origin, a class A misdemeanor. A warrant has been issued for Shupe's arrest, with bail set at $5,000.
In each case, buyers who purchased a car from Palm Tree Automotive, formerly located at 702 S. Main, Suite 3, did not receive title and registration within the 45 days required by law, according to charges filed Wednesday in 3rd District Court.
The cars were purchased from Shupe between December 2009 and March 2010. On average, the complaints were filed 84 days after the cars were purchased. It's unclear whether any of the buyers ever received a title.
Utah State Tax Commission spokesman Charlie Roberts said such crimes are becoming more common in these difficult economic times.
Rather than selling a car, taking their profit and using the rest of the money to purchase the title from a bank or finance company, dealers in such cases often pocket the full purchase price, Roberts said.
"What they do is they get overextended in their credit, so they'll sell the car and won't deliver the title," he said.
Buyers generally aren't aware anything has gone wrong until their temporary registration expires and they still haven't received their title and plates from the Department of Motor Vehicles.
That registration can be extended by the DMV. Subsequent delays result in an investigation by the state Motor Vehicle Enforcement Division.
In addition to criminal charges, dealers such as Shupe who've been involved in such cases lose their license to operate, Roberts said.
"The main thing is they lose their business," he said.
Buyers, however, may never get the title to the car they thought they'd purchased — meaning they can drive it and keep in registered, but they can't sell it.
"In these cases where they have to keep registering it every 45 days, they contact us and we make arrangements where they can keep the vehicle on the road," Roberts said.
Finance companies, banks or credit unions are sometimes cooperative in such cases and will relinquish the title, he said. Another option available to buyers is civil litigation.
A different car dealership now occupies the lot at 702 S. Main, Suite 3, and employees there Thursday said they'd never heard of Palm Tree Automotive or Shupe. The new dealership opened at the site roughly four months ago, employees said.
Attempts to reach Shupe for comment were unsuccessful. A family member reached by phone said the man was out of town, and she wasn't sure how to contact him.
E-mail:jpage@desnews.com
