Pair charged with scamming customers at car dealership

Two Colts Neck residents who operated used car centers in East Brunswick were arrested last week and charged with stealing $229,000 from a real estate investor and about $500,000 from 32 individuals and companies who gave them vehicles to sell on consignment.

Brett Golkin, 47, and Peter Schladebeck, 46, allegedly sold 32 vehicles, valued at about $500,000, but failed to reimburse the original owners, according to the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office. The two defendants, who own Freedom Auto Center, a used car dealership with two locations on Route 18 in East Brunswick, reportedly sold the vehicles between January 2008 and September 2009.

The two were charged following an investigation by Lt. Daniel DelBagno and Investigator Donald Heck, both of the Special Prosecutions Section of the county prosecutor’s office.

The investigation began after the individuals who purchased the vehicles began calling authorities after they paid Freedom Auto Center, but never received titles for the property and could not register the vehicles, according to the prosecutor’s office.

The original owners had held onto the titles while they waited for payment from Golkin and Schladebeck, who were allegedly keeping the money they received from the sale of each vehicle.

Initially, the car dealers had agreed to pay the owners for the vehicles and keep a commission for themselves. Instead, they used the proceeds to pay personal expenses, authorities said.

According to the prosecutor’s office, the investigation also showed that in October 2008 the suspects accepted $229,000 from an investor to assist in the purchase of real estate. Golkin and Schladebeck allegedly kept the investor’s money and never told him they already owned the property.

Golkin and Schladebeck were charged with facilitation, which is the possession of proceeds derived from criminal activity, as well as theft by deception and theft by failure to make the required disposition of cash received for the vehicles. They were also charged with a count of issuing $59,289 in bad checks between May and August 2009 after three vehicle owners demanded payment.

Golkin and Schladebeck were lodged at the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center, North Brunswick, in lieu of $1 million bail each, with no 10 percent option. Superior Court Judge Frederick P. DeVesa set the bail.

The Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office asked that anyone with information regarding the investigation, or who believes they may have been defrauded by Freedom Auto Center, call Lt. Daniel DelBagno at 732- 745-4504 or Investigator Donald Heck at 732-745-8848.