Phony stickers cost $70,000

LYNN – Two motor vehicle emissions inspectors and a service station in Lynn have agreed to pay up to $70,000 to settle allegations they issued fraudulent inspection stickers to cars with failed emissions control systems at a service station in Lynn, Attorney General Maura Healey said Tuesday.According to the consent judgment, entered on Monday in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston, Nasir Haider and Zahid Haider, both of Framingham, conducted at least 41 fraudulent inspections at Haider Five Enterprises, Inc. service station at 161 Chestnut St. between March and August of 2012.The complaint, filed in January, alleges the defendants altered failing inspection stickers to resemble passing stickers and used them to falsely pass vehicles with failed emissions control systems, court documents said.Additionally, according to the complaint, the defendants then attempted to tamper with the sticker bar codes to conceal the source of the fraudulent sticker.Pamela Talbot, strike force director of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, said the Haiders used sophisticated software to create the phony stickers, but it may not be recognizable to all.?We know a mile away, but there are a lot of different ways to issue a fraudulent sticker, so one who isn?t familiar with the details may not be able to recognize it,” Talbot said. “That?s a subjective question, but it was very evident to us.”Talbot said the Haiders are prohibited from working in the motor vehicle safety business, enforced by the Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV). They also suspended their motor vehicle inspections license for five years.Talbot said the fraud was money-related. The RMV charges $35 per sticker.?They keep the cash from each inspection sticker,” Talbot said. “It?s a cash business. How much they gained depends on how much they charged for each sticker.”The Haiders sold the tangible assets of Haider Five – the motor vehicle and repair station – to a third party, Chutzpah Royale, LLC, a Massachusetts limited company, last November.Mohammed Bakari, owner of the new garage, renamed the property Chutzah Royale LLC Inspection Station when he took over in the fall.Although Bakari wasn?t directly affected by the fraudulent behavior, he provided some background on the timeline of what took place before he got there.?The fraud was committed by employees who worked for them, not the owners,” Bakari said.The defendants must pay the Office of the Attorney General, Environmental Protection Division $60,000 by check within seven days, and upon payment, the balance of civil penalty ($10,000) will be suspended.