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Waynes auto tags12/14/2023 Goldschmidt said the commonwealth went with an open plea because it could not possibly hope to fashion a sentence that took all of the victim’s hardships into account. “If we put him back in, nobody’s getting paid,” he said. He also apologized to his victims.ĭaubenberger asked that the judge keep his client out of prison so that he could continue working toward restitution and finding documents that might make the process of gaining registration easier on the victims. Hunley said he learned his lesson during his 122 days in prison and would not appear in court again. He is currently earning $100 per day as a laborer, but said he is fully bonded up to $60,000 and promised to make good on restitution for all the victims. Hunley told the judge he is ashamed and embarrassed by the situation, which lost him a successful business. Goldschmidt noted restitution is narrowly structured in criminal cases to cover only those costs paid out of pocket as a direct result of the criminal wrongdoing, so some victims would have to turn to the civil court system if they wanted to recoup things like lost wages. One man said he has paid $2,400 over the past two years to store his vehicle at a garage, while another said in a letter that he lost $12,000 in wages when he discovered his work vehicle could not be driven due to a missing registration. Several victims said their vehicles are still sitting idle as the paperwork from the caper is sorted through, even though they continued to pay insurance. She said insurance payments she made through Hunley only made it to the insurance company intermittently. One woman said her $2,600 van had been impounded in December because it was not registered. Several victims of the scheme testified Thursday about the hardships they faced as a result of being unable to operate vehicles they thought were registered. Some customers also made monthly insurance payments to the defendants that never made it to insurance companies.Īssistant District Attorney Chris Goldschmidt said Thursday that 135 victims had been identified in the state police investigation, but Pennsylvania Department of Transportation auditor John Eckles said his office received 284 complaints.ĭefense attorney Richard Daubenberger initially objected to the introduction of additional possible victims at sentencing, but agreed with the $45,074 restitution figure Eckles proposed. Victims of the scam told investigators Hunley and Burns repeatedly issued them temporary registrations and that Hunley altered window stickers. She remains free on 10 percent of $15,000 bail. Yates of the Vehicle Fraud Unit.īurns, represented by attorney Scott Kramer, entered an identical open guilty earlier this week and is scheduled for sentencing June 28. Hunley and his clerk, Kristine Ann Burns, 43, of Eddystone, were charged with more than 1,800 counts in January following an investigation by Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Thomas M. Hunley entered open guilty pleas in May to two counts of deceptive business practices, four counts of theft by failure to make required dispensation of funds, and six counts of criminal conspiracy, all felonies of the third degree. Hunley has already served about four months of that sentence and Judge Gregory Mallon allowed him to serve the remainder on electronic home monitoring while he continues working toward restitution for his victims. MEDIA COURTHOUSE > A Chester auto tag dealer who took registration and title payments from customers but never remitted them to the state was sentenced Thursday to 23 months of intermediate punishment.Ĭharles Wayne Hunley, 47, owner of Wayne’s Auto Tags in Eddystone and Wayne’s Auto Tags Too in Chester, was ordered to serve nine months of confinement as part of the sentence.
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