PIERRE, S.D. – Attorney General Marty Jackley announced today that Chad Michael Blair, 42, Houston, TX, formerly of Sioux Falls, was sentenced yesterday in 2nd Circuit Court to one count of deceptive trade practices and one count of odometer alteration. Blair was sentenced to 2 years in the state penitentiary with 2 years suspended. He was ordered to serve 30 days in the county jail to run concurrent to the misdemeanor odometer alterations charge. Blair was ordered to pay $3,375 in restitution, along with court costs and placed on probation for 2 years.
“Tampering with odometers in order to get more money for vehicles from innocent victims is wrong and illegal,” said Jackley. “We will continue to hold responsible individuals who take unfair advantage of consumers.”
The defendant formerly managed River Auto Sales, LLC, and in that capacity replaced high mileage odometers in vehicles, with lower mileage odometers which he purchased from a used auto parts retailer. Blair did this without affixing the notice of odometer alteration required by law to the vehicle affected.
This case was investigated by South Dakota Division of Revenue and the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division and prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office
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