During a crime spree of 5 years, a car salesman was able to commit the crimes of Grand Larceny, Identity Theft, Criminal Possession of Forged Instruments, Scheme to Defraud, Falsifying Business Records and Making False Statements of Credit Terms.

The salesman, Michael McGriff, cooked up his fraud scheme against 17 customers at 3 new car dealerships where he worked selling both new and used cars.

Here’s what he did:

• First he would get a down payment on a car and pocket the cash.

• Next he would have the unsuspecting customer make up the loss of the down payment by financing the car for the total cost instead of the cost minus the down payment.

In a companion scheme, McGriff would collect the full amount of a car’s cost, pocket the funds and then forge finance contracts in the customer’s name for the total cost of the vehicle. This fraud came to light when the victims had their cars repossessed by the banks that were deceived by the phony loans.

McGriff also used the alias of Michael Glenn in order to obtain $12,900 from a trusting customer for the purpose of purchasing a car at auction for him. Unfortunately for the victim, McGriff absconded with the money without delivering a car for the customer.

A source at one of the dealerships said that he did not believe the dealership ever did a background check on McGriff.