Crime & Safety

Police Track Fake Car Sales to MA Fugitive

Keith A. Jackson, 53, of Pawtucket, faces several felony charges in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

 

announced this week that they had concluded an investigation into fake car sales with the May 11 arrest of a Pawtucket man on numerous felony embezzlement charges.

Keith A. Jackson, 53, of Pawtucket, was ordered held at the Adult Correctional Institutions in Cranston to await extradition to Massachusetts on previously-issued warrants after his arraignment on new charges brought by Johnston Police.

Find out what's happening in Johnstonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

According to police, the manager of the Thrifty Car Rental on Hartford Avenue reported two vehicles missing from the company's lot on May 2. Ptlm. Philip Viens wrote that the manager, Dave Lavasseur, said the vehicles went missing sometime after October 8, 2011.

On May 10, Johnston detectives spoke with Chris Hurd, the owner of , where the car rental business is also located. Det. Thomas Dwyer reported that Hurd "suspected ex-employee Keith Jackson [of] selling two motor vehicles without reporting or turning over the proceeds" from the sales.

Find out what's happening in Johnstonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Officers then tracked the two vehicles to their new owners and found errors in the documentation — in one case, the title was not properly transferred, and in the other, none of the sales documents showed Thrifty as the origin of the car.

Dwyer reported that when he contacted Attleboro Police, officers there said they would pursue extradition for Jackson based on two prior warrants for felony larceny issued by that department.

Jackson went to Johnston Police headquarters on May 11, and according to Dwyer's report, denied the allegations.

Officers charged Jackson with two felony counts of embezzlement over $100; two felony counts of accepting money under false pretenses; and two misdemeanor counts of illegal transfer of a motor vehicle.

Justice of the Peace Richard Finnegan ordered Jackson remanded to the ACI until a May 14 hearing in Third District Court, where Jackson waived a challenge to the extradition request by Attleboro Police.


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