A New Hampshire-based company is accusing Vincent Trotter of My Auction Connection of stealing more than $50,000 worth of recreational equipment, according to an incident report filed Aug. 4 with the Murfreesboro Police Department.
Jim Smith of Seacoast Sport Cycle in Derry, N.H., reported to police that “his company has been deprived of funds owed to them from M.A.C.”
According to the report, Smith shipped six motorcycles Jan. 28 to the auction company. On Feb. 11, Trotter informed Smith the motorcycles had been sold and requested the titles of the motorcycles.
“Seacoast Sport Cycle informed M.A.C. that the titles would not be shipped until full payment from [the company] was received,” according to the report. “[Smith] also requested M.A.C. to provide the names of the purchasers, in order to ship the titles directly to the buyers.”
The company set up an escrow account so that Trotter could deposit the funds made at auction, but according to the report, Smith never received any money. By April, Smith repeatedly tried to contact Trotter with no success and discovered the auction company, located on 2349 South Church St., was no longer open.
On April 4, the state suspended Trotter’s auctioneer license, citing violations that included continued and flagrant course of misrepresentation, and failing to account for or remit, within a reasonable time, any money belonging to others.
“A criminal investigator will follow up on the matter,” said Kyle Evans, spokesman for the Murfreesboro Police Department.
This is not the first time the company has been accused of bilking customers out of the thousands of dollars, and it is currently facing several lawsuits by businesses from across the United States, including Georgia, Florida, Colorado and Texas.
A trial is set for June 12, 2012, in the United States District Court of Middle Tennessee involving a lawsuit filed by Dixon Polaris, a California-based business.
M.A.C. signed a contract to sell $318,650 worth of all-terrain vehicles on behalf of the company in November 2009. After the auction, Dixon Polaris was notified that “44 ATVs sold for $181,550, less than half the invoice prices on the units. Not one unit sold for invoice price,” according to court documents.
The lawsuit was initially filed in California, but in March United States District Judge Garland E. Burrell, Jr., order the case to “be transferred immediately to Nashville.”
Attorney Matthew Wright of Brentwood, who is representing Trotter’s company in the suit, could not be reached for comment by press deadline.
There have also been numerous complaints filed with the Better Business Bureau and Tennessee Auction Commission, as well as the Department of Commerce and Insurance, since the company opened in 2009.
“I’m not surprised,” said Connie Anderson, manager of the Wiltruco Federal Credit Union in Nashville, referring to the complaint filed by Seacoast Sports Cycle.
One of Anderson’s customers listed a camper for sale on Craig’s List, and he was soon contacted by a M.A.C. employee who offered to sell it at auction.
Although the reserve amount was contracted at $14,500, it sold for $5,800 in June of last year, according to documents from the Department of Commerce and Insurance.
When Anderson learned that the camper had sold for far less than what was owed on it, and without the consent of her customer, she said she immediately tried contacting the auction company to no avail.
“I tried calling several times, and I even sent people to Murfreesboro to find the camper,” she said, adding she refused to give Trotter the title because the company had violated the contract.
“They couldn’t sell a camper they didn’t have the title to,” Anderson said.
Eventually, Anderson said she recovered the camper but only after Adrian Chick, assistant general counsel for the Department of Commerce and Insurance Office of Legal Counsel, sent a letter to Trotter about the matter.
“They were scared of me so that’s why I got the camper back – because it was owned by a financial institution,” she said.
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