Victims of the largest auto consignment fraud ever investigated in Calgary are finding out that there's not a lot the authorities can do to help them.
Treadz AutoGroup pulled a midnight move last August amidst a storm of consumer complaints and some victims have been told the investigation is now over but they still don't know where their vehicle is or where their money went.
CTV Calgary’s Consumer Watch Specialist Lea Williams-Doherty reported on the trouble with Treadz before the business closed down last year and has been talking with victims ever since.
One of those victims, Kim Olowa, received an email from the provincial auto regulator, AMVIC, on Sunday night and asked Lea to help her understand what it actually means.
AMVIC’s email simply stated, “your case is closed, talk to a lawyer for further advice.”
Olowa is now making two car payments each month, one for her current vehicle and the other for the car she consigned to Treadz.
She says Treadz sold her car and kept the $22,000 and she was trying to get the money back from the company when it suddenly went black.
Calgary police and AMVIC opened investigations into her complaint and the complaints of 119 more victims who told the same story.
“If anyone is gonna tell us something it should be them, especially if the file is closed, okay it's closed, what happened? Where's our cars and money? What do we do now?” said Olowa.
Lea posed that question to AMVIC and was told that it found 27 cars in the hands of one of Treadz' creditors; 20 of those went back to the consignors and seven are still in legal limbo.
AMVIC says it can't tell CTV and might not even tell the consignors, who received the other 128 vehicles that the victim’s lost, in order to protect the buyer's privacy rights.
The Calgary Police Service's criminal investigation is ongoing but AMVIC says if it appears that there is no more information and nothing more to be done, so it will close the victim’s files.
(With files from Lea Williams-Doherty)
