A Murrysville man faces criminal charges relating to a car dealership he used to manage.

Thomas Pennavaria, 61, waived his right to a preliminary hearing in Magisterial Judge Charles Conway's district court last week.

Pennavaria is accused of passing $115,558 in bad checks and scamming nearly $450,000 from 12 people and banks. The scheme involved 38 vehicles.

According to the police report, Pennavaria would manipulate the titles and registrations on vehicles at the store and pass bad checks to buy and sell vehicles through auctions and trade-ins.

This isn't the first time Pennavaria's car dealership business has gotten him in trouble.

In 2004, Pennavaria was sentenced in federal court to three years and 10 months in prison for his role in a Westmoreland County drug ring. He had been accused of leasing cars to drug dealers under different names to help them evade police while he was manager of J&B Motor Cars Inc. Currently incarcerated for that crime, he is due for release in December.

Joseph Doris, an officer with the state police's Western Regional Auto Theft Task Force, said the investigation into the most recent case began in 2004.

He said the scheme at Delta Auto Mall was similar to theprevious case but was a separate enterprise.

Pennavaria faces 11 counts of dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities, one count of forgery, 31 counts of theft by failure to make required disposition of funds, 11 counts of theft by deception, 10 counts of writing bad checks, seven counts of theft by failure to make required disposition of funds and two counts of defrauding security creditors.

The charges in the case were filed in November but didn't come to district court until last week while officers coordinated with the district attorney's office to get Pennavaria available to appear in court.