ASAP Towing owner turned himself into police Wednesday morning. Vince Serrano is accused of grand theft and defrauding the state hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Detectives with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said Serrano defrauded the state out of nearly $200,000 by faking records of the towed cars he sold.
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Action News Jax reported in July when police raided his property. Investigators served a search warrant to look for evidence they believed he was hiding.
“They’re not going to find anything,” Serrano told Action News Jax Annette Gutierrez in July. “Everything that they went through, we gave them, and we have nothing to hide.”
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JSO’s arrest report said it all began when investigators found discrepancies in at least three Sales reports from December 2023. The investigation took off, and detectives went through 255 sales reports from 2020-2024 and found all but three of them had some indication of fraud.
Marshall Adkison is the former president of the Jacksonville Wrecker Association with 30 years of experience as a tow company owner. He said that the report shows added charges that should not be there.
“He’s got a buyers fee and a key fee, and we’re not allowed to take that,” Adkison said. “I meant it’s in the ordinance, it’s in the ordinance twice.”
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The warrant also said Serrano ordered an employee to under-report sales, even when she told him it was wrong.
“I think a lot of the times, employers like to behind – ‘Oh my employee made a mistake,’” Adkison said. I don’t think he can say this at this time.”
Action News Jax told you last year when both JSO and the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office cut ties with ASAP Towing. JSO said the company towed more than a dozen cars from apartment complexes without approval from the properties.
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