SWAMPSCOTT — The public hearing has concluded for a used car dealer accused of having too many cars for sale.
With the renewal of the dealer’s license on the line, the Select Board plans to deliberate next Wednesday, March 4, on whether Four Seasons Motor Group violated its business license by having more than six cars for sale at a given time.
The Class II Used Car Dealer’s License for Four Seasons Motor Group expired in January 2019, and limited the business to only offering six cars for sale at a time at its property at 460 Humphrey St.
The owner, Simon Terechin, intends to renew the license, but the town building commissioner, Max Kasper, and detectives from both the Swampscott Police Department and Marblehead Police Department have said they believe Terechin violated the terms of the dealer’s license.
Wednesday night’s meeting was the second “show cause” hearing allowing testimony related to the Four Seasons Motor Group case.
Much of the hearing was devoted to the testimony of two Marblehead Police officers, Sgt. Sean Brady and Detective Theresa Gay, who visited Four Seasons Motor Group in plain clothes and posed as interested car buyers on Nov. 26. The officers were enlisted to do so by the Swampscott Police Department.
According to Brady, the officers asked about the cars on the property and spoke with Terechin. At one point, when they asked about a car with a sticker designating it as not-for-sale, they were told the car was indeed for sale.
In his report on the operation, Brady wrote, “It was our understanding that any car on the Four Seasons Motor Group’s property was for sale.”
Brady estimated there were about 40 cars on the lot when the officers visited.
Thomas Beatrice, the attorney representing Four Seasons Motor Group, characterized the visit as a “sting operation,” and questioned Brady, who said he has never been involved in another undercover operation involving a non-criminal license violation complaint in his 15 years with the Marblehead Police Department.
“That was the jist of it. It was a licensing issue regarding how many cars were for sale,” Brady said.
Beatrice also questioned both Brady and Gay about their reports, and asked Brady why a specific number of cars for sale was not asserted in his report.
“Since that’s the crux of this investigation, don’t you think that would be important?” Beatrice asked.
Brady also said that no one at Four Seasons Motor Group explicitly said every car on the lot was for sale.
The attorneys for both sides have until Friday at noon to file their concluding “findings,” said Swampscott Select Board Chairman Peter Spellios. That will close the evidentiary portion of the case before deliberation next Wednesday.
Terechin asserts he does not sell more than six cars at a time, but said during the first public hearing on the matter on Feb. 6 that cars in the back are sometimes swapped for the six cars listed for being for sale out front.
Spellios did not seem to buy that argument.
“How is that different from having 46 cars for sale?” he said. “If you’re just rotating once or 20 times and swapping a car from the back, aren’t you functionally offering 46 cars for sale?”
Terechin said he typically sells between 20 and 25 cars in a month.
