Police: West Newton garage applied inspection stickers without examining vehicles

A West Newton auto shop is facing criminal charges after state police said employees there were putting inspection stickers on vehicles they didn’t actually inspect, according to court papers.

When a state trooper visited Martinelli Auto Service in August for an audit, he reported seeing two vehicles with new inspection stickers that would not have passed an inspection. One of them, a Chevrolet car, had a hole in the frame and balding studded tires, according to court papers.

“Both vehicles had obvious rust that would prevent the vehicle from passing a state inspection,” Trooper Jason Ashton wrote in the complaint.

PennDOT officials contacted state police in July with suspicions that the North First Street shop was illegally distributing inspection and emission stickers.

During a surveillance operation on Aug. 1, police reported seeing five vehicles within an hour pull into the business and employees removed old stickers, replacing them with new ones.

Troopers said no inspection was done on any of the vehicles, which were at the shop for a short amount of time — one as quick as 16 minutes, according to court papers. Police said they contacted the vehicle owners, some of whom refused to discuss the situation while others claimed they had no idea their vehicle wasn’t actually inspected.

Martinelli Auto Service is charged with 11 misdemeanor counts each of of deceptive business practices, unsworn falsification to authorities and tampering with records, as well as 11 counts of failing to meet the requirements for issuing inspection stickers.

A message left at the business Friday was not immediately returned. It was unclear if the business had an attorney.

No court action had been scheduled.

Pennsylvania regulations require that passenger cars and light-duty trucks be inspected annually. Those checks are aimed at safety and look at suspension components, steering, braking systems, tires and wheels, lighting, glass, mirrors, the body and the frame, among vehicle parts.