ATLANTA — Writing bad checks to steal cars. It’s a situation that Channel 2 Action News Investigates reported on in 2016 at dealerships across metro Atlanta.
Now, Channel 2 consumer investigator Justin Gray has learned that the problem is back and dealers suspect it’s allegedly the same person at it again.
The allegations are identical in a criminal warrant for theft at a Marietta dealership.
The owner told Gray that he had no idea the same man who allegedly stole a car from him is suspected of doing the same thing other places and of doing it all years before too.
With a Bentley neck tattoo, Mark Anthony Joseph makes no secret of his love of cars.
“He’s really good at what he does. Really,” fraud specialist Barry Bannister said.
Bannister alleges that writing bad checks for cars is Josephs business and has been for years, charming his way into vehicles with a lot of personality and the promise of full sticker price.
“He makes friends with everybody there, writes the check out. There’s no reason to question it because of his demeanor or manor,” Bannister said.
Gray found a Ford Explorer that ended up listed as stolen on a DeKalb County impound lot.
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It was purchased from a dealer with a check for nearly $25,000, allegedly written by Joseph.
It was the same with a $56,000 check for another Explorer at another dealer, and $39,000 for another.
He’s accused of writing a $30,000 for a Nissan Maxima at yet another.
All bad checks, all cases where Joseph allegedly drove off with the vehicles.
“He knew what he was doing from start to finish,” Bannister said.
That’s because he’s allegedly been doing it for years.
Gray found a story about Joseph in the Channel 2 Action News Investigates archive from 2016.
His predecessor, Channel 2 consumer investigator Jim Strickland, reported on the same Mark Anthony Joseph allegedly up to the same thing. Car dealers even described it the same way
“He knew exactly what he was doing,” a dealer told Strickland at the time.
Gray called Joseph to ask him if he was stealing cars by writing bad checks. Joseph hung up on him.
But Bannister suspects there could be even more dealers who have also been hit.
Joseph already has a long criminal record from Cobb County, to Gwinnett, DeKalb to Fulton, including convictions on similar theft charges.
“You’d think if he got in trouble for it before he might have learned his lesson?” Gray asked Bannister.
“No. He has not learned his lesson,” Bannister said.
While there is at least one active criminal arrest warrant out there for Joseph, we know there are investigations in multiple jurisdictions.
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