A man prosecutors say managed to dupe Tesla into giving him five brand new cars has been sentenced to four years in prison after he drove one of the cars onto the frozen surface of a lake and set it on fire in an attempt to collect the insurance money.
A Tesla Model X.
Michael Gonzalez, 34, was sentenced this week after pleading guilty to five counts of possessing and disposing of stolen vehicles that had crossed state lines, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Vermont.
Prosecutors say Gonzalez found and exploited a loophole in Tesla's payment system and managed to get five brand new electric cars worth more than $560,000 combined by "falsely indicating he was prepared to pay the full purchase price."
Gonzalez never intended to pay for the cars, the U.S. Attorney's office said, and he re-sold three of them to unwitting buyers after tricking the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles into giving him titles for the cars.
When Tesla didn’t give him a certificate of ownership for one of the cars, so he couldn’t get it titled, he drove it onto the frozen surface of Lake Champlain, set it on fire and tried to file the loss with his insurance company.
Gonzalez was sentenced to four years in prison followed by three years of probation and was also ordered to pay $493,043 in restitution to Tesla, and another $231,900 to the United States government.
Gonzalez was able to dupe the system by submitting false bank details to Tesla's online payment portal. The company would then deliver the car to him before realizing the accounts had insufficient funds, Market Watch reported, and he in one instance sped away from a repo man trying to take back one of the Model Xs before hiding it in a storage unit. It was during an insurance investigation into the car he set on fire that Gonzalez's ownership of the Tesla raised red flags, and he skipped an interview with the company that would have required him to bring a title. Tesla's website says it will not deliver a car before payment is received in full. Representatives for the company did not immediately respond to Forbes' request for comment Thursday.
$150,000. That's about how much each of the Model X Teslas were worth.
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