Vehicles determined to be “total losses” were sold to unsuspecting purchasers by a Grand Junction auto dealer who never informed the buyers how damaged the vehicles were, an indictment by the state grand jury alleges.
Named in the indictment is 66-year-old Camden P. Fortney III, owner of Camden Motors in Grand Junction.
The alleged scheme ran from 2005 through 2008 and involved 52 vehicles.
According to the indictment, Fortney regularly bought wrecked vehicles, repaired them and then sold them, understating the nature and extent of the previous damage.
At times, he allegedly told the buyers that the vehicles still had a full factory warranty, said the grand jury. However, the indictment said, factory warranties on vehicles declared a total loss or a “salvage vehicle” are normally voided.
Fortney not only was indicted for theft but also on additional counts of commercial bribery and conspiracy to commit commercial bribery related to bribes he allegedly paid to two insurance adjusters.
One of the adjusters, Terry R. Robinson, 48, was an independent adjuster in Grand Junction who did work for Colorado Casualty Insurance Co. The second is Mary Cross, 48, who also worked for Colorado Casualty Insurance.
Robinson and Cross were indicted on multiple counts of commercial bribery.
According to the grand jury, Robinson and Cross would refer “total loss” or “salvage vehicles” to Fortney.
In return for money and gifts from Fortney, the two would send him “clean titles” rather than “salvage titles,” which enabled Fortney to get more money for the vehicles on resale.
The scheme was allegedly uncovered last year after Colorado Casualty Insurance was acquired by Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. The person hired by Liberty Mutual to take Cross’ place received an e-mail in which Fortney tried to recruit her into the scheme.
Instead, the Liberty Mutual employee went to her bosses, and an investigation began.
According to the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, Colorado Casualty Insurance paid more than $500,000 to buy back the 52 cars sold by Fortney and involved in the scheme.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
