By CRM staff
Toronto, Ontario — April 26, 2019 — An undercover shopper from OMVIC, Ontario’s vehicle sales regulator caught a curbsider in Markham, allegedly selling vehicles with rolled-back odometers.
The charges came just weeks after 34 charges were laid against the man for the same alleged activity.
Thirty-six-year-old Arif Adnan Syed has been allegedly charged with curbsiding and committing an unfair business practice.
In January 2019, Syed was charged with 22 counts of curbsiding and 12 counts of committing an unfair business practice.
Euro Premium Auto, an unregistered dealership company directed by Syed, was charged with 13 counts of curbsiding in violation of the Motor Vehicle Dealers Act, and six counts of committing an unfair business practice.
OMVIC’s latest investigation began after a call from a concerned consumer who had responded to a Kijiji ad for a vehicle. The ‘private seller’ who had posted the ad allegedly showed the consumer a number of vehicles he had stored behind a Scarborough apartment complex.
OMVIC’s Investigations team then deployed an undercover shopper who responded to a Kijiji ad posted by the same seller, Syed, for a 2010 Camry with an odometer reading of 155,000 km. The Camry had been sold earlier in 2019 with approximately 217,000 kilometres on the odometer.
Syed allegedly told the undercover investigator he had five more vehicles for sale parked behind an apartment building, all without license plates.
Around the same time, Syed also sold a 2011 Nissan Altima with an odometer reading of 131,590 to a recent immigrant from China. The consumer had seen the automobile advertised on Kijiji and paid Syed $5,400 in cash. OMVIC’s investigation found the Nissan had been sold to Syed for $3,000 just months earlier when the odometer read approximately 229,000 kilometers.
“OMVIC is warning the public not to buy vehicles from, or sell vehicles to, Arif Adnan Syed,” states Don Cousens, OMVIC’s manager of investigations. “We believe this individual’s alleged actions pose a serious threat of consumer harm. As previous charges have not stopped him from continuing the illegal sale of odometer tampered vehicles, we are releasing his picture in hopes of warning the car-buying public.”
