On Friday a man from Quebec walked into O’Regan’s BMW dealership on Kempt Road, sat down with salesman and tried to buy a car.
But he wasn’t who he said he was.
“It’s not that common that someone tries it because they get caught and get arrested,” said Sean O’Regan, chief executive officer of O’Regan’s Auto Group.
“We have safeguards in place to protect ourselves and they seemed to have worked here.”
The man was arrested at the dealership.
That led police to a residence on Frederick Avenue where they seized forged documents and led to the arrest of three other Quebecers nearby.
A day earlier – last Thursday – the same fraud had been attempted at O’Regan’s Mercedes, O’Regan’s Toyota and Steele Hyundai.
At each location, a member of the group had attempted to buy a vehicle under a false identity. While at each location they did manage to complete the purchase, they had only actually obtained one vehicle by the time of the arrests.
“I don’t have specifics on whether they created the identities or whether they impersonated someone else,” said Const. John MacLeod of Halifax Regional Police.
Marc Grenier, 24, of Laval, Jerry Lee Aarestrup, 36, of Chateauguay, Marc Arthur Gauvin, 31, of Longueuil, and Carolane Prevost, 23, of St-Leonard, have been charged with four counts each of fraud over $5,000, identity fraud to obtain property, identity theft, uttering a forged document and making, possessing or selling identity documents.
