Men tricked used car buyers by altering odometers for years in Kentucky, feds say

Mechanics manually changed the odometers on used vehicles before selling the cars for a higher price to unsuspecting buyers in Kentucky, authorities said.

The yearslong scheme began in June 2018 and continued through January, according to a June 15 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Kentucky.

Now, two men have been indicted in federal court. They each face four counts of odometer tampering, one count of conspiracy to commit odometer tampering and one count of wire fraud, records show.

Authorities said a 60-year-old man was aided and abetted by a 50-year-old worker in creating a scheme to “defraud the buyers of used cars by fraudulently reducing the mileage shown on the odometers.”

Those two men, along with other mechanics, altered the vehicles’ titles and the odometers to reflect lower mileage, according to the indictment filed in federal court.

“As part of the scheme, mechanics working for (the 60-year-old) reduced the mileage shown on the vehicles’ odometers by swapping the odometers with lower-mileage replacement odometers,” officials said.

Once the odometers and the titles were updated, the vehicles were sold to customers in Beaver Dam and Bowling Green, according to the release.

For example, records show a 2007 Jeep Cherokee had 189,520 miles before it was sold in 2018 with what appeared to be 71,756 miles. In another case, authorities said a 2010 Nissan Xterra with 211,184 miles sold in 2020 with an altered mileage of 71,835.

Buyers paid more for the vehicles than they would have if they knew the true mileages, authorities said.

If convicted, the men each face up to 35 years in prison.

Beaver Dam is about 40 miles northwest of Bowling Green.

Mechanic resold used cars with hazardous airbags, feds say. ‘Playing Russian roulette’

Men rolled back odometers and then sold at least 118 cars to trick buyers, feds say