Yahoo Autos An Iowa Mechanic Has to Pay $7.2 Million After Allegedly Scamming Repairs on Classic Cars
Looks like you can’t trust all mechanics. Especially when you’re the millionaire owner of a rare car collection. The Des Moines Register reports that an Iowa mechanic has been ordered to pay over $7 million after he scammed the former CEO of Angie’s List on both repairs and classic car purchases.
The scamming began way back in 2010. Craig Hillinger was the owner of Healey Werks Corp. in Lawton, Iowa. Former Angie’s List CEO Bill Oesterle took his 1967 Maserati Ghibli to the shop for restoration. According to the suit, Hillinger quoted Oesterle a timetable of one to two years to complete the work for a price tag of “no more than $200,000.” Except that’s not what happened. Four years later, Hillinger hit Oesterle with a $1 million invoice.
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Hillinger’s grift didn’t stop there. He would also do more work than was asked on cars that Oesterle brought to him. He would do complete restorations on cars that Oesterle only wanted a bit of work done to and then hit him with a big repair bill — bills that included costs for repairs that were never finished or parts that weren’t needed.
Even with all of this, Hillinger was still somehow able to convince Oesterle to help him purchase a classic car.
