HARRISBURG, Pa. — A Harrisburg man has been sentenced for his role in an odometer tampering scheme.
According to the United States Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, on July 10, Earnest Fry, 49, was sentenced to 30 months in jail by U.S. District Judge Christopher C. Conner following his conviction for odometer tampering and forging vehicle titles.
Fry was also ordered to pay victims more than $47,000 in restitution, $700 in assessments and to serve three years of supervised release following his time in prison.
According to United States Attorney Gerard M. Karam, just months after Fry was released from state prison for burglary and other offenses on October 18- and while he was on parole- he devised a scheme to purchase used cars, alter the true mileages by replacing or resetting the odometers and then sell them online to unsuspecting customers who paid inflated prices for cars they may not otherwise have bought.
Additionally, Fry altered or forged the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania titles to multiple cars that he sold by causing the titles to reflect false, lowered mileage.
Fry altered the odometers on at least 55 used cars that he sold and rolled back by nearly 200,000 miles.
In addition to paying more than the cars are worth, Fry's offenses created the risk that buyers would incur additional losses due to likely increased maintenance costs, excessive insurance premiums and other unanticipated expenses.
