Posted on: Thursday, January 16, 2003

Auto-parts scam nets weekends in jail, fine

By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer

A former civilian employee of the Honolulu Police Department who was accused of participating in an auto-parts scheme that bilked the city out of thousands of dollars was sentenced yesterday to five years probation.

In addition, Circuit Judge Richard Perkins ordered Victor Hasebe, former HPD automotive equipment superintendent, to spend 12 weekends in jail, beginning Feb. 14, and to repay the city $13,000.

City Deputy Prosecutor Randal Lee said that from 1993 to 1999, Vernon and John Isono, who operated Larry's Auto Parts in Kaimuki, billed HPD for standard automobile parts to cover the cost of high-performance parts the two were providing to Hasebe and former HPD storekeeper Winston Owan for their personal use.

In May, Perkins fined each of the Isono brothers $2,500 and ordered each to pay $3,333 in restitution. In addition, he ordered the Isonos to abide by conditions similar to probation for five years.

Owan pleaded no contest to a theft charge in November.

Lee said Owan and Hasebe formed an arrangement with the Isonos to have the city pay inflated prices for parts used to maintain police vehicles.

In return, Larry's Auto Parts provided Hasebe and Owan with cash, parts and travel, Lee said.

Lee said Owan and Hasebe were also accused of falsifying invoices to have the city pay for about $10,000 worth of high performance automobile parts that were never used on HPD vehicles, but which went to the two men for their own use.

At the sentencing hearing yesterday, Lee urged Perkins to make an example of Hasebe that white collar crime by city employees will not be tolerated.

But Hasebe's attorney, Clifford Hunt, said after the hearing that the Isono brothers received much lighter sentences and no jail time and that sentencing Hasebe to jail "sends the wrong message."

He described Hasebe as a low-paid civil servant who was induced to participate in the scheme by trips to Las Vegas.

From 1993 to 1999, the Isono brothers sold more than $800,000 worth of auto parts to the city, most likely making hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit, yet they received lighter sentences than Hasebe, Hunt said.