Ripoff motor mechanic cooked cars

By JO-MARIE BROWN

A mechanic spent eight years sabotaging vehicles so he could then fix them.

Oswald Othmar Risi deliberately "cooked" engines and replaced car parts unnecessarily in order to charge customers thousands of dollars for repairs.

Risi, who formerly owned two Auckland automotive mechanical repair workshops, was found guilty of fraud yesterday.

Unsuspecting customers who brought their cars to Remuera Village Auto Services - later known as Remuera European Motors - and the Nationwide Service Centre in Glen Innes had no idea what Risi was up to.

In many cases, customers dropped off vehicles for a routine service or warrant of fitness and returned to find their cars required major mechanical repairs.

Engine cylinder heads - which had previously been in perfect working order - needed replacing after Risi drained water from radiators and left engines running for up to five hours.

Oil was poured over rear brake shoes to create the appearance of leaking wheel cylinders, and down spark plug inlets into the motor requiring a complete engine overhaul.

One man paid Risi $7530 to fix an engine knock which the 44-year-old mechanic said was due to damaged bearings.

What the customer did not know was that Risi had taken to the bearings with a strip of emery paper to scratch and expose them.

When the subsequent engine overhaul failed to fix the engine knock, the man looked at the car himself and replaced the faulty vacuum pump that was making the noise for just $120.

Yesterday, several out-of-pocket customers looked on in the Auckland District Court as Judge Lindsay Moore convicted Risi on 25 charges of fraud, 12 charges of wilful damage and two charges of attempted wilful damage.

Risi was acquitted on a further six charges of fraud, wilful damage and false pretences.

Judge Moore described him as "a skilful manipulator" whose victims had trusted him and accepted his mechanical advice.

Risi's dishonest activities were exposed in November 1999 after police investigated complaints from two disgruntled customers.

John Evans' 86-year-old mother, Gladys, paid $1700 after Risi said her 1989 Toyota Starlet had blown a head gasket on all four cylinders.

But an independent assessment found that was not possible.

Mr Evans met Rob Richmond, whose wife had also been ripped off by Risi, and the pair investigated further.

They contacted former employees of both the Remuera and Glen Innes workshops and discovered a Fijian immigrant who had been keeping an eye on Risi.

Suliasi Naulivou worked at Glen Innes and had compiled three notebooks with dates, registration numbers and the details of unnecessary work or deliberate damage Risi had done.

Detective Warrick Webber said the Fijian man was on a work permit and had not dobbed in his boss because he was afraid he would lose his job.

"If any employee criticised [Risi] he would make them redundant or in one case he accused one of them of theft," Detective Webber said.

Two of Mr Naulivou's notebooks were lost in a house move, but the third proved invaluable to police in tracking down duped customers to testify in court.

The Weekend Herald contacted Mr Naulivou and another man who worked with Risi yesterday. Both declined to comment.

The four-week long trial produced astounding tales of what Risi had been up to between 1991 and his arrest in 1999.

Many customers Risi targeted were elderly including 78 year-old Edna Shephard who, after paying nearly $3000 to have her car's alleged "numerous mechanical faults" repaired, took its old brake shoes to the Automobile Association for inspection.

Her car had travelled only 8000km, and she was told the brake shoes were in excellent condition and had not needed replacing.

"It was an awful experience, I just couldn't believe it. It's a lot of money when you're on a pension," Mrs Shephard said.

The court also heard that Risi poured water into the running engine of one 86-year-old's car, giving the engine oil a milky colour - a common symptom of a blown head gasket.

On another occasion, a crowbar was used to gouge cylinder bores and piston rings were deliberately broken.

Risi convinced most customers the repairs were necessary for the cars' safe operation.

One man ignored his advice that serious mechanical damage would occur if a head gasket was not replaced, and has since driven his car a further 103,000km without incident.

Judge Moore yesterday thanked those who had exposed Risi, but Mr Evans remained modest about his role.

"I'm not so much proud of myself but I'm pleased for all the people that were hurt.

"This is some form of recompense now that the guy's been found guilty," Mr Evans said.

Risi was remanded in custody for sentence in May.

He faces a maximum penalty of seven years' imprisonment for fraud and five years' imprisonment for wilful damage.