CORRECTION: Car dealer Bob Close pleaded no-contest. He DID NOT plead guilty to charges.
OGDEN -- Once a matter of possible prison time, a local car dealer's case has been settled with probation and a restitution order.
Robert Close, 64, owner of Bob's Car Co., 3249 Wall Ave., was charged in January 2009 with a pair of felonies for an alleged failure to disclose a branded title to a customer to whom he sold a truck.
A branded title attached to a vehicle means a vehicle had serious problems, such as damage from being in a wreck, say officials with the state Motor Vehicle Enforcement Division who investigated Close.
In the case of the truck Close sold, it was so badly built, the manufacturer was forced to buy it back, according to the allegations. A branded title can cut the price of a car or truck to as much as half of its Blue Book value.
Close was charged with third- degree felony communications fraud and second-degree felony failure to disclose a branded title. The former carries up to five years in prison and the latter up to 15 years.
Motor Vehicle Enforcement Division agents booked Close into Weber County Jail, where he was released on $20,000 bail.
The communications fraud charge was dismissed last May.
Last month, the branded title charge was reduced to a third-degree felony and amended to attempted failure to disclose, and Close plead no-contest. The plea will be held "in abeyance" for six months by 2nd District Judge Michael Lyon, according to court records, meaning if Close meets the terms of his six months of probation, the charge will be dismissed in six months.
Close was also sued civilly by the buyer of the truck, who claimed an $18,000 loss. The suit has been settled, and Close's plea bargain on the branded title charge includes an order he pay restitution in the amount settled upon in the civil suit. That settlement amount was not disclosed.
The truck in question sold by Close for roughly the $18,000 figure -- much higher than the actual value -- and was five to eight years old, officials said, adding it had been sold several times before.
In each prior sale, the proper disclosures of the branded title and the manufacturer buyback had been made until Close sold the truck, according to the Motor Vehicle Enforcement Division.
The charges applied to a single Dec. 1, 2007, sale.
Lyon will review the case for possible dismissal Aug. 26.
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