Kentucky's chief law-enforcement officer has filed a lawsuit against a Nicholasville car dealership.
Attorney General Andy Beshear says the legal action is in response to deceptive business practices.
The AG’s office contends Auto Plaza USA violated Kentucky’s Consumer Protection Act by defrauding more than 1400 customers.
According to the suit, for four years, Auto Plaza collected vehicle usage taxes from customers and then falsified documents to avoid making the correct payments to the state.
Many customers then received delinquent tax notices for payments they made to the car dealer.
Attorney General Beshear was asked if Auto Plaza should be shut down.
“In the end, we don’t control who has those rights, those licenses to sell. I will tell you the conduct that we have seen and allege in the complaint is egregious,” said Beshear.
The Attorney General's office is seeking court damages from the defendant of about $465,000 in restitution for customers and $685,000 for buyers affected by what’s termed a bogus customer fee.
The investigation began after the AG’s office and Better Business Bureau of Central and Eastern Kentucky received more than 100 complaints.
Two attempts by WEKU to get a response from Auto Plaza proved unsuccessful.