Victims of Treadz Auto closure want more money from provincial consumer compensation fund

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include two clarifications.  A previous version read that 50 people were never paid after their vehicles were sold on consignment, and that a class action lawsuit will be filed in May. 

Dozens of car owners are upset they will only get a fraction of the money they lost when a Calgary car dealership closed three years ago back.

When Treadz Auto closed in 2014, nearly 100 people were never paid after their vehicles were sold on consignment.

Jesse Hare had a 2009 Dodge Ram on consignment and remembers the day he went to the dealership to get a cheque for the sale.

“To my surprise and everyone else’s, the lot was completely empty and all the vehicles were gone and the gates were shut.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "To my surprise and everyone else's, the lot was completely empty and all the vehicles were gone and the gates were shut."

A total of 51 victims applied to a consumer compensation fund through the Alberta Motor Vehicle Industry Council (AMVIC).

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There is $4 million in the fund and the claims from Treadz victims totaled $1.1 million.

Watch from December 2014: Over a hundred Calgary drivers are still waiting for word about their missing vehicles. Left for sale at Treadz auto, they were never paid for before the auto dealer shut down in August. As Tony Tighe reports, the case is now a complicated fraud investigation.

However, the fund caps the payouts on any one dealership claim at $350,000.

Hare is getting legal information on how to be fully compensated.

“I just think AMVIC needs to step up. I think they know that they have the money and I think they need to step up.”

AMVIC CEO, Douglas Lagore, says the payout terms in the fund were set five years ago when it was started and can’t be changed. However, he understands people’s frustration and disappointment.

“To me I think it’s positive that we do have a compensation fund within the province that people can turn to and they are going to get some money back. There’s places in Canada where there is no compensation fund and they would have no one to turn to.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "To me I think it's positive that we do have a compensation fund within the province that people can turn to and they are going to get some money back. There's places in Canada where there is no compensation fund and they would have no one to turn to."

Lagore says the Treadz claim is the largest one ever made to the fund. At a board meeting on Tuesday, he said directors decided to review the limits on the compensation fund, including the cap on payouts per dealership and consumer claims, plus the three-year waiting time to file claims.

While it won’t help the victims like Hare. He and many others have filed a class-action lawsuit for which a hearing is set for May 2018.

The owner of Treadz, Sean O’Brien, was charged with 165 counts of fraud and forgery.