When Ashutosh Pathak and his brother went to purchase a truck, they couldn’t have predicted the headache that would ensue.

Last fall, Pathak bought a Ford F-150 for just under $40,000 from Summit Ram in Ponoka, which is owned by Kaizen Automotive Group.

After driving it for a month, RCMP seized the vehicle and told Pathak it was stolen and the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) had been altered.

Pathak had no idea, despite going through the proper channels.

He said they checked the VIN and made a point to purchase a truck from a reputable dealership, as opposed to a private sale via Facebook Marketplace or an individual.

Pathak made a complaint to AMVIC — the Alberta Motor Vehicle Industry Council. Pathak said its investigation found the dealership didn’t know the vehicle was stolen and was not in the wrong.

He was told to go through insurance, but insurance told him because it wasn’t stolen from Pathak, his claim was not covered.

Pathak was told he could pursue legal action, but couldn’t afford to hire a lawyer.

The family was left with no truck, no $40,000 and no answers.

After five months of making payments on the loan he took out to buy the vehicle, Pathak turned to Global News.

Days after the story aired, Summit Ram made an arrangement to repay Pathak the nearly $40,000 price tag.

“We have been issued a check of the actual amount of what we paid for the truck. Now this matter is resolved,” Pathak said.

While he is happy to have his money back, he is frustrated with the long wait and the whole process.

“I think I am a whistleblower because since this news broke out to the Global News, I would (say) 99.9 per cent of people were just saying one thing: ‘This person should get his money back because he’s the victim,’” Pathak said.

“I understand maybe the Kaizen Group may go through the same process to retrieve the vehicle or retrieve the money, but as a consumer… my involvement should be very minimal in all these scenarios.”

The Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams’ auto theft unit calls this a prolific problem, and it’s not just used vehicles targeted — new automobiles can also have their VINs tampered with.

ALERT auto crime unit Sgt. Brandon Crozier said the problem on the rise.

He said analysts have been working to identify number and it’s estimated since 2022, there 1,500 fraudulent vehicles that originated in Alberta.

“Re-VINs have always been a problem,” Crozier said.

“We’re seeing an increase, because there’s technology out there to assist these guys with the craft. VIN labels, you can buy them online. We have intercepted several shipments coming to people in Edmonton, and it’s a complete set of VINs for any vehicle.

“When you check those VIN labels, they’ve never been built.”

“Primarily, vehicles are stolen in Alberta and they’re usually relatively new or brand-new vehicles taken for the purpose of profit. That could either be exportation out of the country for profit or re-VINning them and introducing them back into the marketplace for sale to unsuspecting buyers,” Sgt. Crozier said.

Crozier said criminals will steal a vehicle, re-VIN and establish a paper trail so when they go to a register it, the vehicle appears to be insure in Alberta and has someone’s name attached to it.

In the case of used vehicles sold to a dealership, that means when staff run checks to make sure there’s no safety issues and it’s currently registered, the dealership will take that at face value.

“Once that vehicle lands with a citizen who bought it unsuspecting, it’s quite easy (for police) to find because they have their current address, and their proper name and everything on the registration,” Crozier said.

“Unfortunately, we are seizing more vehicles from unsuspecting victims than we are from the bad guys.”

Criminal rings are becoming more and more sophisticated every day, police say.

“This is a group who they will target certain vehicle makes, they will have expertise and the technology to revamp a vehicle and then they have people that can now start pushing those out into the marketplace,” Crozier said.

Crozier said there are things you can do protect yourself, whether you’re buying from a dealership or an individual:

• Meet with the buyer at their home or possibly a police station parking lot
• Take a friend as a second set of eyes
• Verify VIN labels are present and do not appear to be tampered with
• Check that the VIN on the door frame and the one in the windshield match
• Check the public CPIC website for stolen vehicles
• Get a Carfax vehicle history report. Look for red flags like colour change, mileage inconsistencies and if the service history and registration make sense
• Check the manufacture website to see if there are any outstanding safety recalls. Note: a fraudulent VIN will not be searchable
• Check for loans or liens against the VIN
• Google search the VIN

The Insurance Bureau of Canada’s Rob de Pruis said when you buy a vehicle, you have to remember buyer beware — it’s up to the consumer to explore the tools available to know the vehicle’s history.

“If you buy a vehicle, your insurance company will provide you that insurance in good faith, assuming all the information is correct,” de Pruis said.

“Your insurance policy is there to protect you from things like theft, but it must be stolen from you.

“Law enforcement repossessing a vehicle is not something the insurance policy covers.”

de Pruis said the onus is on the buyer to understand that vehicle.

“Your insurance policy doesn’t cover items that have been illegally acquired, even if you didn’t do so knowingly,” he said.

Service Alberta Minister Dale Nally said the situation Pathak went through is completely unacceptable.

“When an Albertan buys a vehicle from a licensed dealership, it should always be legally owned,” Nally said in a statement to Global News.

“I have met with the Alberta Motor Vehicle Industry Council to get answers on how this happened, and I expect them to take the necessary steps to strengthen oversight and prevent this from ever happening again.”

AMVIC said, in a statement, it is having ongoing meetings with the department officials to review and potentially strengthen protections for Albertans in the automotive industry.

“AMVIC will also continue to work closely with the RCMP and other police services regarding investigating and prosecuting fraudulent activities in the automotive sector.”

Kaizen Automotive Group owns over 20 dealerships, primarily in the Calgary area and in California. Global News reached out to Kaizen for comment on this story but as of publishing, had not received a response.

Earlier in March, the Calgary-based auto group released a statement saying it was aware of the situation and had been working with Pathak and AMVIC for months.

Kaizen said it was recently “given information” that the truck may have been fraudulently purchased in 2024 and that fraud was reported to the RCMP.

“It appears that the information was not uploaded into the RCMP database for stolen vehicles. Summit Ram at the time of sale completed a lien search and VIN verification and followed all standard precautions to confirm the vehicle was free and clear. All checks came back clean and verified,” the company said.

“We have been in contact with both law enforcement and the relevant financial institutions to better understand why the vehicle was seized from the home of the customer without providing any relevant information to the customer nor Summit Ram.”