$3 million in stolen cars recovered but...

[Stephen W.]

Most of you probably know nothing about this story. However, its big news in the Canadian car community since it broke back in May. Oh and I live just 10 minutes south west of Stirling Ontario were this all went down.
In late 2023, OPP in Lambton County in southwestern Ontario launched an investigation after receiving a complaint of stolen vehicles with a combined value of approximately $3 million.
OPP say their extensive investigation led to a search warrant being issued on May 14 at an address in Stirling, a rural community 25 kilometres north of Belleville and approximately 450 kilometres east of Lambton County.
Investigators located several of the reported stolen vehicles, including some classic cars. Police also seized 16 vehicles from the two accused as proceeds of crime.
Robert Bradshaw, 54, and Gary Leblanc, 55, both of Stirling, Ont., were arrested and each charged with theft of motor vehicles over $5,000, fraud over $5,000, using forged documents and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence. Leblanc was also charged with uttering threats.
However, here’s “the rest of the story. Most of the cars were owned by Grogan Classics. Robert Bradshaw had some arrangement for the buying, selling and/or storing of vehicles for Grogan Classics. Somehow a large number of cars changed hands supposedly without Grogan’s knowledge. Many of these cars were sold and legally registered to new owners between 2020 and 2024. Now, years later Grogan Classics claims they were stolen and wants them back. There is proof that a few owners notified Grogan of problems when trying to register their vehicles. In one case Grogan Classics couriered revised paperwork so the registration was corrected for the new owner, or so they thought. In another case Grogan Classics bought back a vehicle with incorrect paperwork. But in most cases the cars have been seized by law enforcement including the one that Grogan supplied corrected paperwork for. Plus, in some cases these seized vehicles have already returned to Grogan Classics. This seems to be in direct conflict with current laws that require the vehicles be impounded until such time that their status is verified. It also means those people whose cars were seized are out of pocket not just the original purchase price but also the thousands of dollars spent repairing, restoring or upgrading. Those affected are looking into their legal options.
https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a6...-classic-cars/
https://torontosun.com/news/provinci...red-car-seized
https://torontosun.com/news/local-ne...vehicle-seized
https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/202...mplate=default