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WEST NANTICOKE — A vehicle title transfer and notary agent who operated a used car lot in West Nanticoke was arraigned Tuesday on allegations she failed to transfer collected fees to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.
Sherry Ann Petroski, 53, of White Oak Drive, Hunlock Township, who operated The Car Lot 8, LLC, on state Route 11, failed to submit $14,603.90 to PennDOT, according to court records.
The amount of fees and taxes collected that was not surrendered to PennDOT was revealed in an audit by the PennDOT Quality Assurance Office. The fees and taxes are generated from vehicle sales, title transfers and registrations.
Petroski was arraigned by District Judge David Barilla of Forty Fort on a total of 175 counts consisting of tampering with public records, failure to transfer taxes to commonwealth and failure to submit vehicle purchase slips within 20 days to PennDOT. She as released on her own recognizance.
Pennsylvania State Police at Wilkes-Barre initiated an investigation of Petroski’s business, which has since closed, in November 2022, when a woman filed a report about the title for a 1986 Chevrolet Monte Carlo.
The woman’s son purchased the 1986 Chevrolet in a private sale and had the registration of ownership transferred at The Car Lot 8. A temporary registration was provided as the woman failed to receive the Chevrolet’s title within 90 days of process, court records say.
After the report was filed with the state police, a trooper visited Petroski, who claimed she misplaced the file about the Chevrolet Monte Carlo on her desk, according to court records.
State police in court records say they received 56 complaints about vehicle titles and registrations where were processed through The Car Lot 8 and never received the proper PennDOT paperwork.
Multiple visits by an auditor with the PennDOT Quality Assurance Office and the trooper to The Car Lot 8 during normal business hours found the business closed, an audit was finally conducted in March, showing $14,603.90 in collected fees and taxes was never transferred to PennDOT, court records say.
Court records say Petroski claimed she needed “to keep money coming in” as a reason she never transferred the collected fees and taxes.