One of Edward Cicciu’s victims handed over her money at her son’s wake. That detail came from the prosecutor, not a tabloid. It says plenty about the man who ran Bristol County Auto Exchange in Swansea, Massachusetts.
Cicciu changed his plea to guilty on November 6. He now awaits sentencing, facing at least four years in prison and no more than six, followed by five years of probation.
The court also ordered $340,380.76 in restitution to 47 victims. The district attorney who secured that order doesn’t believe they’ll get it.
“I am sure he will never pay back the restitution ordered by the court,” said District Attorney Quinn. Prosecutors rarely say that out loud. When they do, take them at their word.
The scheme was simple. Cicciu bought vehicles at auction, where the auction house keeps the title until the car is paid off in full.
He then sold those same vehicles to retail customers, pocketed their money, and never paid the auction house. No payment meant no title release, and no title meant no registration.
So 47 people, ranging in age from 18 to 80, drove away in cars they could not legally put on the road. The auction houses were left holding titles to vehicles they had never been paid for.
It was a con with an expiration date built in. Every buyer who walked into an RMV office would eventually come back asking where the title was, and the complaints started piling up.
The paperwork Cicciu did hand over was its own problem. His plea covers 37 counts of forging or misusing an RMV document, which suggests he was faking his way through the gap for as long as he could.
The rest of the charge sheet is just as ugly. It includes 43 counts of larceny over $1,200 by false pretenses and 38 counts of failure to deliver title upon transfer.
Add five counts of larceny of a motor vehicle and two counts of larceny by check over $1,200. This was not one bad deal but a business model.
“These victims paid for vehicles they could not register, leaving them without reliable transportation and out thousands of dollars,” said Swansea Police Chief Foley.
For a working household, a used car is not a luxury. It’s how you get to the job that pays for the car. Lose the money and the ride at the same time, and the hole gets deep fast.
Detective Charles Rowland built the case one complaint at a time, and Assistant District Attorney Nicole Cheney prosecuted it. Quinn and Foley both singled them out for credit.
Quinn called the conduct “despicable and unconscionable.” He said he hoped victims would feel “there is some accountability, although not enough.”
Those last three words are the real story. A restitution order is a piece of paper. It doesn’t empty anyone’s bank account on its own, and it guarantees no one gets made whole.
Some of the 47 may still have to chase Cicciu individually to recover what they lost. A criminal conviction should make that civil fight easier, but it won’t make it cheap or quick.
Cicciu is waiting on a judge to decide how many years he serves. His victims are waiting on a dollar figure, and the man who prosecuted the case has already told them not to hold their breath.
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