North Huntingdon man ordered to pay more than $50,000 in auto repair, check fraud case

Joe Napsha, Tribune-Review, Greensburg, Pa.
·2 min read

Apr. 30—The owner of a former North Huntingdon auto repair shop will pay more than $50,000 in restitution to customers who paid for work that was never performed and for buying $13,000 worth of goods with bad checks.

Dean Vezzani, 43, of North Huntingdon agreed Friday to pay $400 a month in restitution to the victims, which Assistant District Attorney Theresa Miller-Sporrer calculated would take his client close to 11 years to complete. In return to pleading guilty to deceptive business practices and bad checks, Vezzani was sentenced by Westmoreland Judge Meagan Bilik-Defazio to probation and time served.

As part of the plea bargain, Assistant District Attorney Theresa Miller-Sporrer agreed to drop charges of fleeing from authorities filed after Westmoreland County Sheriff's deputies tried to arrest him. Officers eventually found Vezzani hiding behind a basement wall in his home and told him he would be Tased if he didn't come out, according to court papers.

When he was arrested in May 2017, Vezzani was accused of bilking nine customers out of $56,000 and removing parts from vehicles. He was charged with multiple counts of deceptive business practices and theft by deception.

Vezzani pleaded guilty to issuing 27 bad checks to Toona Automotive, which operated a store in Irwin, where he purchased $13,000 in equipment and supplies. A representative of Toona Automotive agreed to reduce his compensation to $10,000 as part of the plea bargain.

Miller-Sporrer dropped charges filed in connection with another two individuals. One man now living in Florida declined to return to Greensburg. Another could not pursue his claim because the two-year statute of limitations had expired, the prosecutor said.

One of the victims, Gary Ed of Irwin, said after the hearing he was happy to get the matter resolved.

"After 6 1/2 years, we don't have to worry about it anymore," Ed said.

Ed said Vezzani owed him $1,300 for work never performed on Ed's 1992 Mustang convertible. He said he sold Vezzani a SUV to reduce the cost of the anticipated repairs. When the work wasn't finished on the Mustang, Ed said Vezzani offered him excuses for the delay.

"It was just one comedy of errors after another," Ed said.

Joe Napsha is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Joe at 724-836-5252, jnapsha@triblive.com or via Twitter .