Jupiter police arrest man accused of scamming owners of antique car
https://www.wpbf.com/article/jupiter-police-arrest-man-accused-of-scamming-owners-of-antique-car/25838491
JUPITER, Fla. —
Jupiter police have arrested a Palm Beach Gardens man after nearly a dozen classic car owners said they were ripped off.
Thomas Lloyd, 57, faces charges of fraud of $50,000 or more and money laundering transaction $100,000 or more.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Lloyd ran Bubba’s East Coast Rods and Customs.
Since 2017, at least 10 people have come forward and told police they gave Lloyd tens of thousands of dollars to do work on their cars, the report said.
The victims said the work was either never done as promised or it wasn’t done right.
Police said the total amount stolen from the victims is more than $281,000.
Lloyd now runs Bubba’s Exotic Motorsports in Lake Park.
He has bonded out of jail.
Lloyd did not want to talk on- or off- camera today about the allegations.
WPBF 25 spoke with Lloyd’s attorney, Brian Pakett, by phone.
He said Lloyd will be entering a plea of not guilty and his intentions with his customers were always good.
“For every customer that my client had that had somebody that was upset with his work and was upset with the lack of work that he did, I can show you two more customers that were extremely happy with my client and in fact are repeat customers," Pakett said.
Pakett said Lloyd always intended on working on people’s cars and did the work on the majority of them.