Man arrested for trying to defraud Tesla dealership out of second car within a month

After successfully stealing a car in December, a man returned to the same Fayetteville dealership to try again and ended up in jail along with an accomplice.

Fouad Kemal, 24, of Silver Springs, Md., faces five felony charges — 2 counts each of financial identity fraud and forgery in the first degree, and one count of theft by taking – along with a charge of theft by deception, according to the Fayette County Jail log.

He was arrested Jan. 6 at the Tesla dealership in Fayetteville, where in December he had bought a vehicle valued at $112,000 using phony identification and other documents, a spokesman for the Fayetteville Police Department said. Kemal that day drove off with the car before anyone realized he had made a fraudulent purchase.

In an attempt to go to that well one more time, he returned with an accomplice to make a second purchase. He used a different set of identification that time, and police said a sales associate recognized him as the same man who had made the December purchase. Since it is rare for anyone to buy two Teslas in such a short time, officials at the dealership became suspicious and called police.

Upon arrival, police interviewed both suspects and got to the bottom of the situation fairly quickly. The FVPD spokesman said the criminal investigation division did very little with this case since the patrol officers handled 99 percent of it.

The accomplice in the Jan. 6 arrest was identified as Hazma Addow, 26, of Stone Mountain. He was charged with one count of financial identity fraud and one count of obstruction of an officer.

The two men arrived at the dealership that day in a Chevrolet. Police were unaware of whether the original Tesla has been recovered.