LEWISTON – A monthslong investigation by the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles has led to the indictment of a Lewiston-based used car dealer, according to a news release from the bureau.
Danny Pulkkinen, 60, of Turner, owner of U Turn Auto Sales in Lewiston, has been indicted on 15 counts of aggravated forgery and an aggravated theft, all Class B felonies, related to allegedly selling his customers vehicles that had outstanding liens to his creditor.
Each felony charge is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and $20,000 in fines.
Detective Christine Buchanan of the Bureau of Motor Vehicles Office of Investigations, took the lead on the case after the bureau received several complaints last summer from people who said their vehicles were being repossessed even though they did not know of any outstanding liens.
“It turned out this dealer had borrowed money to buy the vehicles,” the bureau’s senior detective, Everett Kaherl, said in a written statement. “The lender put his name on every title and then stopped giving titles back when he stopped getting paid.”
Instead of paying back the lender when the cars were sold, Pulkkinen allegedly used the money to pay other bills, and did not provide the vehicle titles to the people who purchased the cars.
“Most people don’t know they should ask to see the title on a vehicle they are buying,” Kaherl said. “The dealer is required to have it on premise. If he can’t show it to you, there’s a reason he won’t show it to you.”
Twenty-three consumers were effected in this case. With the help of the bureau’s Vehicle Services Division and the Bureau of Insurance, the state was able to invoke the dealer’s bond on the vehicles to pay back the lender so he would release the titles to the consumers who had purchased the vehicles.
“Most of our cases begin with one complaint and blossom out of that, like this one did,” Kaherl said. “We are pretty aggressive with consumer complaints. We do everything we can to make it right for the victim and to protect the consuming public down the road.”
U Turn Auto Sales was formerly on Lisbon Street in Lewiston and moved to Sabattus Street by the time Pulkkinen’s dealer license was suspended last summer.
The grand jury indicted Pulkkinen on the theft charge based on the charge that he sold mortgaged property; and charged him with forgery for allegedly lying on the title applications.
He is scheduled to appear in Androscoggin County Superior Court on July 2.
In 2014, Pulkkinen pleaded guilty to a civil charge of illegal attachment of license plates in 8th District Court in Lewiston and was fined $100.
According to the Secretary of State’s Office, U-Turn Auto was incorporated in January 2012. In August 2013, the Bureau of Corporations administratively dissolved the company for failing to file an annual report. Its license to conduct business was reinstated in February 2014 after that report was filed.
Many of the allegations contained in the Androscoggin County indictments included activities conducted during the time the corporation was not licensed by the state to conduct business.
In August 2014, Pulkkinen was warned that he faced loss of that license unless he provided proof of workers’ compensation insurance. The company was dissolved by the state in October 2014 after failing to maintain workers’ comp insurance and/or pay penalties.
The company’s clerk resigned April 20, and the company is no longer licensed to transact business in Maine.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
