DECATUR, Ga. — A state agency has launched an investigation into an auto emissions inspection station that allegedly gave phony certificates to hundreds of cars.
State investigators said for most of 2023, one rogue emissions inspector in Decatur sold hundreds of emission certificates to cars that didn’t even have to show up for an inspection.
Cars lined up on Tuesday at the Panthersville Road site called Scenic Emissions – a place behind a BP gas station with a new manager, Bernard Hamm, who said he’d reopened it last week after the state temporarily closed it down.
State records show that Georgia's Environmental Protection Division (EPD) documented 1,630 phony emissions certificates issued by this shop – at a cost of $100 each or more to drivers – for cars that never even showed up to get tested.
The EPD fined the shop $5,000 plus demanded $6,552.60 as repayment for the bogus certificates, according to records released by the agency.
After getting tipped to the scheme, state investigators showed up at the shop to conduct surveillance. They said they spotted the rogue employee in action.
Brian Gist with the Southern Environmental Law Center said proper emission inspections have done a lot to clean up Atlanta’s air.
"A few bad apples can really destroy the work of a lot of other cars that are more fuel efficient and are operating cleaner," Gist said.
In its records, EPD named one employee as the woman who engineered the scheme. Records indicate she has not been charged criminally, though her license to issue emission certificates has been repealed.
She was well known, the new manager said.
"People have still been coming by, still looking for her," Hamm said.
Hamm added that the service is no longer, illegally, offered at the shop.
"I’m making this place a much better place, treating people the way they're supposed to be treated," he said.
The EPD declined an interview request, saying a criminal investigation in the case is still underway. Coincidentally, the shop is located right across the street from the headquarters of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.