One month after being found guilty on 21 counts of theft, including the Class A felony of theft over $250,000, by a Tipton County jury, former Covington car dealer Marty McDivitt received his sentence.
McDivitt, 54, was sentenced to 15 years in prison Tuesday by Judge Joseph Walker. He must serve 30 percent, or four and a half years, before being eligible for parole.
Twenty of the counts stemmed from McDivitt, who operated McDivitt Motors in Covington, presenting car titles to the Bank of Tipton as collateral to make draws on his revolving line of credit. The problem was that McDivitt did not own the cars. In many cases the cars had already been sold to customers, which led to many complaints being filed against McDivitt when title issues arose. Some customers also said McDivitt did not pay off loans on trade-ins, leaving customers with two car payments.
The 21st count alleged that McDivitt deployed a “scheme of thefts” to defraud the bank.
McDivitt is also facing six separate pending indictments. The charges include multiple counts of theft, forgery, criminal simulation, sales tax fraud and writing worthless checks.
