Toms River used car dealer sentenced for skimming sales tax

A Toms River used-car dealer packs for a prison term of up to three years for collecting $156,564 in sales taxes from customers, and neglecting to hand it over to the State of New Jersey.

Gennaro Dicecilia, 58, was sentenced in Trenton for his July 14 guilty plea to a second-degree charge of failure to turn over collected sales tax, according to the office of acting New Jersey Attorney General John J. Hoffman. He was ordered to pay restitution totalling $220,797, representing the sales tax, penalties and interest.

Dicecilia, owner of Automotion LLC on Route 9, was indicted in November 2013 following a state investigation that stemmed from a routine inspection of used-car lots in Ocean County for licensing and registration discrepancies in November 2011.

Investigators concluded that Dicecilia hadn't submitted sales tax returns or sent any payments since opening the business in 2007. They also determined through a civil audit that Dicecilia hid information about the number of transactions he completed and the amount of sales tax he collected.

A subsequent look at title transfer records established that Dicecilia collected $205,157 in sales taxes, and sent $48,593 during the audit, authorities said.

"Even after the Division of Taxation confronted him about his failure to turn over sales tax, Dicecilia tried to deceive the state about how much he had collected," Hoffman said in a prepared statement. "We won't tolerate dishonest merchants who defraud the State of New Jersey and its honest taxpayers."