Texas Car Dealers Falsified Smog Testing

The owner of two Arlington, Texas, used car dealerships who was charged with falsifying vehicle emissions test results has agreed to a judgment requiring him to comply with Texas law.

In July, the Attorney General’s Office charged Hussein Mahrouq, Mahrouq Enterprises International Inc. and MEI Auto Repair with unlawfully using a company-owned inspection station to falsify vehicle emissions testing results. Mahrouq’s dealerships, Automax and Dollar Rent a Car Sales, conducted their emissions tests at a company-owned testing station called A Quick Inspection.

According to state investigators, the defendant used emissions data from vehicles with clean emissions as a substitute for vehicles whose mechanical condition might have caused them to fail the tests.

Investigators examined vehicle inspection stickers that appeared on used cars and trucks sold by Automax and Dollar Rent A Car Sales and determined they  were never actually subjected to emissions testing.

Today’s judgment requires the defendant companies – which no longer operate the inspection station named in the State’s enforcement action – to submit a list of inspection stations they now rely on for emissions testing.

Clean scans

Investigators will then check these stations’ databases and inform Automax of any clean-scanned vehicles it finds. The defendant must then notify purchasers who bought vehicles with falsified inspection stickers and retest those vehicles at the defendant’s expense. The defendant also agreed to pay $50,000 in civil penalties and attorneys’ fees to resolve the State’s enforcement action.

A typical clean-scan operation involves a vehicle inspector attaching testing equipment to a “clean” vehicle that already passed the clean air inspection. Then, the inspector enters an untested and potentially non-compliant vehicle’s identification number (VIN).

As a result, an untested vehicle passes its inspection, receives an inspection sticker and is capable of being resold to buyers, who think they are purchasing a properly inspected and approved vehicle.

By investigating and reviewing data collected by emissions testing machines, investigators can uncover illegal testing schemes, as in this case. The testing equipment, which interfaces with each vehicle’s onboard diagnostic equipment, helps  investigators uncover when a vehicle has been issued another vehicle’s testing results and inspection sticker.