WARMINGTON: Classic car owner latest to have legally registered vehicle seized

You can’t always get a police officer to attend when your car is stolen, but they will come if you have an ownership card for what was deemed to be someone else’s vehicle.

Toronto’s Sam Grosso is the latest to experience this.

First it happened to Wayne and Mona Evoy in July, when the OPP showed up with a flatbed truck to seize what they thought was their 1934 Ford Couple replica. Despite having legal paperwork, they were told it had previously been reported stolen.

Now it’s Grosso’s turn.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said the former owner of the Cadillac Lounge, who now lives in Prince Edward County. “I thought it was some type of practical joke. On Aug. 24, a truck was here from the OPP and I was advised to co-operate or I could be charged with obstruction.”

He handed over the car.

Yet for two years he had his beautiful 1960 Buick LeSabre on the road as part of his Vintage Car Wine Tours.

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“I have the ownership and I did a lot of checking when I bought it to make sure it had no liens on it or was stolen and it came back clean.”

He said he’s out $10,000. He doesn’t blame the police. It’s clear there was an alleged crime ring at play. But like the Evoys and many others, he wonders how they can register their cars, pay taxes, fees and insurance and then have to hand over the keys years later because of alleged criminal activity.

“It doesn’t seem right,” he said.

Meanwhile, Robert Bradshaw and Gary LeBlanc of Stirling, Ont., have been charged with theft of motor vehicles over $5,000, fraud over $5,000, use of forged documents and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence. Their charges have not been tested in court.

Police alleged the rightful owner of the cars, Larry Grogan of Grogan Classics in London, Ont., was the rightful owner of the vehicles, which were allegedly sold without his knowledge to unknowing customers.

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The Evoys lost $30,000. Others as much as $100,000. Grogan’s lawyer Paul Downs said his client is out millions.

While there is no argument about the victimization of Grogan, Grosso and the Evoys say they feel unfairly trapped in this game in that there was no way they could have known this was going on since they legally registered their vehicles with Service Ontario.

“Following the necessary paperwork at Service Ontario in Belleville, the car was successfully registered,” said Grosso.

It means Grosso and the Evoys have paperwork to say the cars were theirs. However, according to police, the cars were not theirs and hence have been taken away.

All they are left with is a bill of sale, an ownership that is not being honoured, thousands of dollars in losses and a lot of questions that no one in government so far seems to want to answer.

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