Rick Case owns the largest chain of Acura dealerships in the nation. His dealerships consistently rank as the #1 volume Acura dealers in North America. Mr. Case has spent many years making sure that his 16 locations are the best around when it comes to Acura’s. But even a good reputation can be easily tarnished.
Earlier this year, the dealership that bears the man’s name was hit with quite a whirlwind of controversy. That’s because one of the dealerships that Rick owns had an incident where the store’s general manager, Dayton Diaz, was charged with helping an identity theft ring by providing customer information to a man named Fitzroy Carter.
Carter payed Diaz $9,000 for the information which included birth dates, customer addresses and even social security numbers. Carter then used the information to apply for and receive credit from HSBC Bank in Nevada. He then went on to spend more than $137,000 to purchase a bunch of computers with the credit cards he took out on other peoples names. Though this has taken everybody at the dealership by surprise, Rick says he couldn’t have seen it coming.
"I’ve been in this business for 45 years, and this has never happened to me before," Case said. "There’s absolutely no way to protect yourself."
Dayton Diaz is expected to receive 28 months in prison for his part in helping the theft ring. He is due to be sentenced on June 6. But Rick Case is still aware that there isn’t much you can do if someone you trust decides to go bad.
"There’s no way that any dealer can protect himself from an employee who wants to put themselves in a fraud position," Case said.
Hopefully, this will be the last time Rick finds himself in such a situation.
Source: Automotive News
