Owner of defunct Ormeau Montesalvo Motors admits to tampering with dozens of cars

The owner of now defunct Gold Coast garage company has admitted to tampering with the odometers of dozens of cars before selling them at an inflated price. Read the full story

A man has admitted to tampering with dozens of cars in order to fraudulently sell them at an inflated price.

A Gold Coast motor dealer has admitted to fraudulently selling dozens of cars at an inflated price by tampering with their odometers, raking in thousands in profits.

Samuel Tyler Montesalvo pleaded guilty at Southport Magistrates Court to 10 charges including six bundles of dishonestly gaining an increased vehicle sale price, three bundles of tampering with motor vehicles and one count of contravening an order to access information stored electronically.

Up until June last year, Montesalvo owned and operated the now defunct used car dealership Montesalvo Motors Pty Ltd in Ormeau.

Between August 2022 and February 2023 Montesalvo via his business bought six different cars from City Motor Auctions Group and advertised them through the Montesalvo Motors Facebook page, Senior Sergeant Damien Summerfield told the court.

Gold Coast private car dealer Samuel Tyler Montesalvo has pleaded guilty to dishonestly selling 40 cars at an inflated price by tampering with the odometres. Picture: Amaani Siddeek

All of the cars had their odometers significantly reduced before Montesalvo sold them at an increased price.

On one occasion, Montesalvo purchased a 2020 Kia Sports car for $17,300 with an odometer reading of 207,213 kilometres. He then sold it for $20,000 with a new odometer reading of 43,667 kilometres.

On another occasion, he bought a 2012 Mazda CX5 with an odometer reading of 310,979 kilometres for $10,300. After reducing it to 129,979 kilometres, he then sold it for $15,490.

At the same time, between June and November 2022 Montesalvo bought and sold 34 cars, all significantly tampered, to a Mitsubishi dealership in Western Australia at an inflated price.

Snr. Sgt Summerfield said all of the cars had their odometers wound back by approximately 100,000 kilometres each.

Snr. Sgt. Summerfield said on May 24 last year, police received an investigative package from the Office of Fair Trading containing data from the Department of Traffic and Main Roads which prompted the investigation.

Montesalvo was then arrested on June 23 at a Yatala address under Operation Victor Command where three vehicles with tampered odometers were located.

Samuel Tyler Montesalvo fraudulently sold second hand cars after tampering with their odometers. Picture: Facebook

A month later police attended his Ormeau address and executed a search warrant on two mobile phones. Montesalvo refused to give police access and was arrested and transported to Pimpama Police Station and later released on bail.

Snr. Sgt. Summerfield said Montesalvo was making repayments to a Department of Fair Trading fund being used to repay people defrauded during that time.

Montesalvo’s defence lawyer Jay Merchant on behalf of Fraser Lawyers said between being the sole provider for his wife and four children and running the company, the fraud was a “misguided attempt to salvage his business”.

Magistrate Joan White issued a stern warning to Montesalvo against the allure of profiteering.

“The amounts involved in your fraudulent activities to put it mildly is very huge,” Magistrate White said.

“You have caused a huge amount of angst to a lot of people. You are otherwise a law abiding and good person.

“But you’re like a lot of people in this world at the moment who think that money is more important than anything else.

“It is not.”

Magistrate White sentenced Montesalvo to two and a half years imprisonment for the fraud charges, 12 months imprisonment for the tampering charges and six months imprisonment for the contravening an order charge. All three are to be served concurrently and were wholly suspended for four years.