Customers: Car dealer disappeared with tags, titles

WHITE COUNTY, Ga. — Months after their purchases, White County car buyers say they still haven’t received tags and titles and cannot get in contact with the man who sold them their cars.

“We’ve got over $30,000 in this truck now, and we don’t even know if it’s ours,” said Justin Mathis, a Blairsville man who bought his truck from Mitch Simpson Motors in December.

Channel 2 investigative reporter Nicole Carr confirmed five buyers have filed theft reports with the White County Sheriff's Office. A sixth buyer filed a report after Carr interviewed him in the dealership parking lot Wednesday. Since their dilemmas involve unpaid state taxes, Carr reached out the Department of Revenue. They are now investigating the claims and asking taxpayers to contact investigator Brian Crisp at Brian.Crisp@dor.ga.gov.

"I’m very angry," said Butch Julian, who paid cash for his teenage son’s Audi in January. “I mean this aggravates me. This is my son’s first car, and now he is going to have to park the first car I bought him.”

The car buyers say they’ve received extensions on temporary tags but have not been able to get straight answers from Simpson himself. According to signage on the door, the dealership shut down in mid-February.

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One buyer, who ask to remain unidentified, told Carr he’s trying to protect his cash purchase from being repossessed.

“I’m having to hide my vehicle at night," he said. "Don’t know if someone’s going to show up and pick it up.”

The dealership’s finance manager continues to collect customer payments out of a nearby Cleveland office building.

Carr left a message Wednesday and stopped by the office but found it was closed on Wednesdays.

This isn’t the first time Simpson’s dealership has been the center of controversy. In 2011, Simpson faced a federal  indictment in a car loan scam that led to the closure of his business.

Channel 2 is still awaiting confirmation from authorities on how the case panned out.

A message left with Simpson’s attorney Wednesday afternoon has not been returned.

“We've tried to contact them. We've tried to work with them, but we've gotten nowhere,” said Mathis. “We’re at our wits' end. I mean, we don’t know what to do with this.”

Cox Media Group