Joseph Colaizzi, the former owner of Cars & More Auto Sales, which was later renamed The Car Works Co., in Murrysville, Pa., has pleaded guilty in federal court to four counts of mail fraud, according to a report in the Murrysville Star.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, Colaizzi would accept customer’s used vehicles and was supposed to then pay off outstanding financial obligations on the cars, but instead submitted forged lien release documents to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

By filing the forged lien releases, Colaizzi was able to obtain duplicate titles to the cars without paying for them, and would then resell the vehicles to other customers. Using this method, Colaizzi fraudulently acquired titles to at least 42 cars between Feb. 2003 and June 2004.

Colaizzi, who is scheduled for sentencing on April 7, faces a maximum of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both for each count. Prior to his guilty plea Colaizzi also faced more than 750 local charges, however, those charges were declined in favor of the federal counts.