Wichita car dealer repeatedly sold Mercedes without title, wrongfully repossessed it: DA
The owner of a used car dealership in north Wichita and an ex-salesperson will pay thousands in restitution and civil penalties to settle claims they engaged in shady business deals in violation of the Kansas Consumer Protection Act.
The Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office sued Epic Auto Sales, its owner Brandon Walker and a former salesman, Carlos Porter, after they sold a 2006 Mercedes CLS500 the dealership didn’t legally own to three different people in 2021, a petition filed on Jan. 18 says.
In one case, the dealership repossessed the car without warning, court records say.
They also didn’t tell customers about serious problems with the car, even though they knew about them, the DA’s petition alleged.
The dealership, formerly at 1348 N. Cleveland, first sold the car to a Wichita woman on June 17, 2021, but didn’t give her its title within the required 60 days because it “failed to obtain” it from the prior owner, the petition says.
The woman returned the car after discovering “multiple mechanical issues that would be too expensive to repair” and was told she would get a refund after the car sold to someone else, the petition says. She didn’t receive a refund, the DA said.
The next buyer, a Wichita man in his sixties, bought the Mercedes on Sept. 11, 2021, and paid for it with credit from a trade-in. The dealership didn’t legally own the Mercedes then, either, the petition says.
Four days later after the sale, the man noticed the car was missing from his possession and reported it stolen to Wichita police.
When the man called Walker about the missing Mercedes, Walker told him it had been repossessed because his trade-in “had a bad transmission,” according to the petition. The DA’s Office says the man received no prior notice that the repossession was happening or the Mercedes sales was “conditional in any way.”
He also wasn’t told about an open safety recall warning of an increased risk of crash or injury.
The next week, Walker forced the man to sign “an altered copy of the sales agreement” voiding the sale, court records say.
Less than three weeks later, on Oct. 10, 2021, Epic again sold the Mercedes to another Wichita man who bought it using trade-in value from two vehicles.
The man eventually took the car back after the dealership failed to turn over the title, but he never received a full refund or had his trade-ins returned, according to the DA’s petition.
That man also wasn’t told about any mechanical issues with the Mercedes, the petition says.
The DA’s Office began investigating Epic Auto Sales, Walker and Porter after three customers complained about their car-buying experiences.
Walker and Porter entered into a consent judgment that resolved the case on Sept. 29, the DA’s Office said Thursday.
A news release announcing the deal says Porter and Walker both deny intentionally violating the Kansas Consumer Protection Act but settled the matter by agreeing to a 41-month probationary period, paying $15,720 in restitution to customers and paying $60,000 in civil penalties.
They’ll also pay $197 in court costs and $2,000 in investigative expenses, the release and court records say.
Under Kansas law, sellers must give car buyers the title to a vehicle within 60 days of purchase or the transaction is considered “fraudulent and void” and the buyer is entitled to a full refund, the DA’s Office said in the release. The release also noted that the Federal Trade Commission’s Used Car Rule requires dealers to post a Buyers Guide which gives “important purchasing and warranty information” on every used vehicle offered for sale.
For more information about how to file a complaint about a consumer transaction in Sedgwick County, go to www.sedgwickcounty.org/district-attorney/consumer-protection-division.
