Jul 21, 2010 By Josh Krysak 2 min read

All charges were dismissed Tuesday morning against a longtime Uniontown businessman accused of selling a car in Uniontown despite being legally forbidden to do so. State police Trooper Timothy S. Karpiak said Francis J. “Chip” Palumbo III, 63, of 141 Belmont Circle was charged March 31 before Magisterial District Judge Michael M. Metros with theft by failure to make required disposition, providing false information to transferee, employing an unlicensed salesperson, failure to collect required taxes, failure to pay required state taxes and engaging in the sale of a vehicle without a license.

Karpiak said Palumbo owns and operates the Palumbo Pre-owned car dealership in Morgantown, W.Va., but has been forbidden from selling vehicles in Pennsylvania for more than two decades after he pleaded guilty in federal court to tampering with the odometers on as many as 500 vehicles that were then sold at auctions, many in the surrounding area.

Following his guilty plea in October 1986, the state Board of Vehicle Manufacturers, Dealers and Salespersons revoked Palumbo’s dealer license on Aug. 18, 1989, and, despite his efforts in 2004 and 2008 to gain reinstatement as a car dealer, Palumbo remains forbidden from selling cars in Pennsylvania.

Karpiak said the new charges against Palumbo were levied when police learned that he sold a car for $1,500 to Joyce Thorpe, no address available, at his garage located at the intersection of Markle and Connellsville streets in Uniontown in February.

Karpiak said that Palumbo completed sales papers for the transaction as if it were being conducted in West Virginia and also failed to collect more than $100 in taxes and fees owed to the state from the transaction.

Additionally, Karpiak said that Palumbo failed to disclose the odometer reading to Thorpe at the time of the sale.

However, all charges against Palumbo were dismissed when Thorpe failed to appear in court.