Automax Dollar Rent a Car Sales agree to changes in procedures
Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas FORT WORTH The owner of two Arlington used car dealerships who was previously charged with falsifying vehicle emissions test results has entered into an agreed judgment requiring him to comply with Texas law.
In July the Attorney Generals Office charged Hussein Mahrouq Mahrouq Enterprises International Inc. and MEI Auto Repair with unlawfully using a company-owned inspection station to falsify vehicle emissions testing results. Mahrouqs dealerships Automax and Dollar Rent a Car Sales conducted their emissions tests at a company-owned testing station called A Quick Inspection. According to state investigators the defendant used emissions data from vehicles with clean emissions as a substitute for vehicles whose mechanical condition might have caused them to fail the tests.
The Office of the Attorney General worked with the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) to jointly investigate vehicle inspection stickers that appeared on used cars and trucks sold by Automax and Dollar Rent A Car Sales which were never actually subjected to emissions testing.
Todays judgment requires the defendant companies which no longer operate the inspection station named in the States enforcement action to submit a list of inspection stations they now rely on for emissions testing. NCTCOG will then check these stations databases and inform Automax of any clean-scanned vehicles it finds. The defendant must then notify purchasers who bought vehicles with falsified inspection stickers and retest those vehicles at the defendants expense. The defendant also agreed to pay $50000 in civil penalties and attorneys fees to resolve the States enforcement action.
A typical clean-scan operation involves a vehicle inspector attaching testing equipment to a clean" vehicle that already passed the clean air inspection. Then the inspector enters an untested and potentially non-compliant vehicles identification number (VIN). As a result an untested vehicle passes its inspection receives an inspection sticker and is capable of being resold to buyers who think they are purchasing a properly inspected and approved vehicle.
By investigating and reviewing data collected by emissions testing machines NTCOG investigators can uncover illegal testing schemes as in this case. The testing equipment which interfaces with each vehicles onboard diagnostic equipment helps investigators uncover when a vehicle has been issued another vehicles testing results and inspection sticker.
