You take your car to a mechanic and are told it was stolen after the shop owner left it running outside.
But who would you hold responsible? Likely, the mechanic.
Gavin Elliott, a 24-year-old Toronto resident, knows the feeling very well. It happened to him in November a couple of days after buying his first car, a 1998 Toyota Camry.
“I am at a complete loss of what to do and nobody has helped me,” said Elliott, a recent graduate of the University of Guelph, adding he needs a vehicle for his new job.
“This is definitely not the way a first car purchase should go. The mechanic and shop have been completely negligent to my requests to provide insurance information.”
Elliott bought the car in a private sale. It was certified by the seller at Lions Auto Centre in Scarborough. But the next day, Elliott said there was an oil leak. The shop agreed to repair the vehicle.
The following day, Elliott said he got a phone call from the shop, in which he said he was told the car had been left outside with the engine running and had been stolen.
Police were called and took a report. They identified the shop co-owner as Hakim Yousofi.
Elliott said Yousofi denied liability for the loss — a position the mechanic repeated when confronted by Global News.
“Get that camera away,” he said to the news crew, explaining that he was responsible for a vehicle inside the shop but not outside.
Toronto lawyer Jeff Gray disagrees. He said shop owners who are negligent with their clients’ vehicles are obligated by law to pay damages. But vehicle owners might have to go to small claims court to collect.
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