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Court records filed in Volusia County lay out a case that has nothing to do with spin or speculation: a DeLand car dealer is fighting a first-degree felony charge accusing him of running a consignment operation that kept customers' sale proceeds instead of paying them out. Andrew Scott Jacobs, 58, was arrested on April 14, 2026, and booked into the Volusia County Branch Jail on one count of organized scheme to defraud under Florida Statute 817.034(4)(a)1, a first-degree felony reserved for cases where the alleged loss tops $50,000.
Jacobs posted a $75,000 surety bond and was released from custody the same afternoon. Circuit Judge Kathleen McNeilly is presiding over the case, formally filed as State of Florida v. Andrew Scott Jacobs, and the docket shows defense attorney James R. Disinger entered a not-guilty plea on Jacobs' behalf on April 20. Prosecutors filed the formal information six days later. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for July 28, with trial currently set for August 17.
Florida's organized scheme to defraud statute isn't built for a single bad sale. Prosecutors have to prove a continuing course of conduct, which is why the charge carries so much more weight than an ordinary theft count. As charged, a first-degree felony in Florida carries a maximum of 30 years in state prison and a fine of up to $10,000, though any actual sentence would hinge on scoring guidelines and Jacobs' prior record. None of that is settled yet. He's presumed innocent, and the case is still moving through its early pretrial stage.
The dealership at the center of the case, Elite Motorcar LLC, has its own paper trail worth noting. State corporate filings show the company was formed in January 2012 at 1636 East New York Avenue in DeLand, with Jacobs listed as its manager and registered agent. That LLC was voluntarily dissolved in February 2024, a full year and a half before the November 2025 offense date listed on the current charging document. Once a business no longer legally exists, there's no corporate shield left standing behind whatever paperwork still carried its name, a distinction that matters plenty once a case moves from criminal court into civil claims for restitution.
It also wasn't Jacobs' or the dealership's first trip through the Volusia County courthouse. Circuit court records show the LLC previously sued Yellowstone Capital LLC, a merchant cash advance lender, in 2020, the kind of short-term, high-cost financing dealerships often turn to when floor-plan credit tightens or cash flow stalls. That's not proof of anything on its own, but merchant cash advance litigation is a familiar warning sign to anyone who has watched an independent dealership wobble before it folds.
Consignment deals are common in the classic and collector world for a reason: a dealer with foot traffic and marketing reach can often get a seller more money than a private listing would, and the dealer keeps a cut once the car sells. The arrangement only works if the money actually moves from buyer to seller once a sale closes. There's no title-holding escrow requirement forcing a dealer to cut that check the same week, and a seller who hands over a title and keys is trusting the dealership's bookkeeping more than most car owners realize. We've covered how that same trust gets exploited from the buyer's side too, including an Ohio buyer who wired $9,500 for a fabricated Nova listing that only existed online. Different scheme, same lesson: the paperwork trail is the only thing protecting you once money changes hands.
Florida requires every licensed motor vehicle dealer to carry a surety bond, currently $25,000 for used car dealers, specifically so wronged customers and consignors have somewhere to file a claim if a dealership stiffs them. That sounds reassuring until you consider how an organized-scheme charge works: it requires a continuing pattern, not a single transaction, which means a claim against the bond could end up split multiple ways before anyone sees a dollar. That's the quiet catch in dealer bonding nationwide. It's a backstop, not an insurance policy, and it was never sized for organized, repeat conduct.
Dealership-side fraud allegations tend to make enthusiasts nervous for good reason. Anyone who has ever handed a title to a stranger for a commission check knows how much blind trust that requires. We've tracked similar disputes play out in very different directions, from dealership managers in Toronto who are now suing police for $11 million after their fraud charges collapsed, to a Miami Bugatti store's allocation and labor-rate fight that shows dealer-network trust can break down even at the top of the market. What ties them together isn't the dollar amount. It's how much of the car business still runs on a handshake and a signature nobody double-checks until something goes wrong.
If you're weighing a consignment deal on a car, the paperwork discipline matters more than the dealer's showroom. Get the consignment agreement in writing with a specific payout deadline tied to the sale date, not a vague promise to process it soon. Ask whether the dealer will confirm each sale to you directly rather than relying on a phone update down the road, and check the dealer's license status through Florida's public license lookup before signing anything. If a shop pushes back on any of that, treat it as the moment to walk, not the moment to trust harder.
For now, the criminal case against Jacobs moves forward on its own timeline, with plenty of pretrial motions likely before an August trial date holds up in any real sense. What's already public, though, is a reminder that a dissolved LLC doesn't erase debts, and a signature on a consignment form is only as good as the person standing behind it.
