One of two men who pleaded guilty to crimes related to an odometer tampering scheme at two area used car dealerships was sentenced Tuesday to three years of probation.

Donnie Wilson, 51, was sentenced in U.S. District Court after previously pleading guilty to four counts of odometer tampering, one count of conspiring to tamper with odometers and a count of wire fraud.

According to federal court records, Wilson worked for Randy Huff at South Side Auto Sales in Bowling Green for about four years and was determined to have aided and abetted Huff in a scheme in which vehicles purchased to be sold at the lot had their odometers fraudulently altered to show mileage readings that were lower than the true reading.

Wilson’s role in the scheme involved filling out fraudulent paperwork, including odometer corrections forms and title request paperwork filed with local authorities, and that the forms included forged signatures of victims, court records show.

An investigation ultimately found that Huff sold 43 vehicles at South Side and at Huff’s Auto Sales in Beaver Dam from 2018 to 2023 that had fraudulently altered mileage readings.

Under federal sentencing guidelines that factored in the nature of the offense and any prior criminal history, Wilson faced a penalty range of 8-14 months in prison, but was also eligible for probation.

While the criminal case was pending, Wilson was ordered by the court to attend an in-patient drug treatment program, which he credited at his sentencing Tuesday for helping him to recover from addiction and to chart a course for his future.

“My plan is to spend the rest of my life making amends to the people I’ve hurt, directly and indirectly,” Wilson said in court.

A sentencing memorandum filed last week by Assistant U.S. Attorney Raymond McGee noted that it intended to seek $39,214 in restitution from Wilson to be paid to the victims and that it intended to seek a higher amount from Huff, who has pleaded guilty to the same charges and will be sentenced May 21.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Greg Stivers ordered Wilson to pay $10,000 in restitution, saying that the amount previously sought was too high given the scale of Wilson’s involvement in the plot.

“His role seems to be very minor and it’s my impression he was really not fully aware of what was going on,” Stivers said, adding that there was no evidence to show that Wilson received money or otherwise benefited financially from his involvement in the scheme. “Mr. Huff will have his day in court, but it seems like he’s the one who should be the primary person to be saddled with this obligation to repay these folks.”

According to court records, two of the used vehicles identified as having fraudulently altered odometers included:

•A 2007 Jeep Cherokee sold at South Side with an odometer reading of 71,576 miles that was altered from 189,520 miles.

•A 2010 Nissan XTerra sold at Huff’s Beaver Dam dealership in 2020 that arrived at the lot with an odometer reading of 211,184 miles but was sold with the odometer reading 71,835 miles.

McGee’s sentencing memorandum said that many purchasers who were defrauded had “extremely poor credit” and that Huff’s car lots offered in-house financing in exchange for upfront cash down payments.

“In many cases, the down payment for a car with a rolled back odometer was higher than the price Huff paid for the car at auction,” McGee said in his sentencing memorandum.