Business & Tech
Windsor Classic Car Shop Owners To Serve Time For Identity, Auto Theft: DA
BREAKING: Plea agreements were reached with the owners of West Coast Auto Craft, according to the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office.
SONOMA COUNTY, CA — The owners of a Windsor classic car repair business pleaded no contest Tuesday to identity and auto theft charges with losses totaling at least $750,000. Christopher Miranda, 43, and Pamela Malfa, 36, owned and operated West Coast Auto Craft that specialized in restoring and repairing classic cars.
Over several years, the defendants took hundreds of thousands of dollars from customers to restore cars but never finished the work, according to the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office.
Miranda told customers the cars needed additional work, then charged them more money. Investigators found more than 30 classic cars that had little or no work done on them in a field in Cloverdale at the time
Miranda and Malfa were arrested, prosecutors said.
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Some of the cars were in worse condition than when they were brought in for repair because of weather exposure and improper storage, prosecutors said.
In one instance, Miranda changed the VIN number on a customer's $90,000 Camaro then sold it to another buyer who was unaware of the theft.
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The cars have since been returned to their owners, and Malfa and Miranda owe the victims approximately $750,000 in restitution, according to the district attorney's office.
Each defendant was charged with 57 counts of identity theft and grand theft. Miranda pleaded no contest to 13 counts of grand theft and one count of identity theft. He will be sentenced to 15 years and three months in
prison on Nov. 21, according to his plea agreement.
Malfa pleaded no contest to 12 counts of grand theft and will be sentenced Nov. 14 to 180 days in Sonoma County Jail and five years' probation as part of her plea agreement.
"This rip-off was considerable and many people suffered a significant financial loss," Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch said in a statement. "The scale and scope of their misconduct will be reflected in the sentence they receive," Ravitch said.
By Bay City News Service
Image via Shutterstock
