A Vancouver man has been sentenced to 14-and-a-half years in prison after pleading guilty to hawking 17 stolen cars on Craigslist.
Police say Jonathan Allan Duck, 33, began pawning the vehicles off on unsuspecting victims for between $3,000 and $12,000 in early 2010, always insisting buyers pay cash.
The vehicles' identification number plates had been replaced with plates from wrecks, a process known as "cloning."
The Integrated Municipal Provincial Auto Crime Team eventually tracked Duck, who had been using several false identities in his Craigslist postings, to an apartment building in the Oakridge area of Vancouver.
He was found on Dec. 29, 2011 driving a stolen Audi and arrested. He pleaded guilty to trafficking in stolen property over $5,000.
Police say the public can avoid being victimized in similar schemes if they insist on paying with bank drafts or certified cheques, which leave a paper trail, or by purchasing a vehicle history report from ICBC.
