A Valley man thought he was buying a reliable car for his friend, until he later found out, the car didn’t belong to the man selling it.
Chandra Chodagam paid $6,100 to Ride and Drive Auto LLC in North Phoenix for a car, but says he never received the title.
After numerous attempts to obtain the title from the business owner, Sam Howie, Chandra did some digging himself.
Chandra later found out the car belonged to someone else, so he decided to return the car to its rightful owner and demanded a refund from Howie.
Howie gave him $1,200 in cash and a post-dated check for the remaining $4,900, but Chandra says the check wasn’t good.
Howie finally admitted to ABC15 investigators that he did in fact owe Chandra $4,900 after repeatedly telling us that it was already taken care of. Howie said he would have the money to Chandra within two weeks, but that never happened.
Howie even tried to get ABC15 to not air the story, saying if we did not air his story he would pay back Chandra. Of course, we never agreed to that.
Instead, the State charged Howie with four felonies including Chandra’s sale and another car title issue; he pled not guilty.
Howie also had a previous charge from 2014 when he was sentenced to two year’s probation and $27,000 in restitution after he agreed to sell a van for someone and pay off the loan. But documents accuse him of taking another $3,500 from the owner, and never paid off the loan.
Chandra still hasn’t received his full refund for the car and ABC15 will be following the story to see how it ends.
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