Heather Wright/The Independent

The charges are piling up in case of the theft of over 200 classic cars from a Watford dealer which caused shockwaves in the collector community.

Court documents show four people face up to 13 charges each after classic cars were stolen and sold to unwitting car enthusiasts starting in 2020.

In late 2023, Larry Grogan of Grogan Classics alerted Lambton OPP about missing classic cars. May 14, officers, flanked by police from the OPPs Emergency Response Team, and provincial auto theft unit, searched a garage in Stirling, north of Belleville. Police found 16 of Grogan’s cars worth about $3 million.
Police charged Robert Bradshaw, 54, and Gary LeBlanc, 55, with multiple counts of theft, fraud, using forged documents and consipracy.

In early October, OPP officers arrested Michael McCrory, 58, and laid the same six charges against him.

Then, Oct. 28, just before the trio were to appear in a Belleville Court, OPP arrested Charolotte Johnston, 53, who is now jointly charged with Bradshaw, LeBlanc and McCrory in the thefts. Police allege they resold the cars after using forged ownership documents.

Bradshaw is also facing a charge of utter threats against Grogan after coming to Lambton County Sept. 2023, as police investigated.

They’ll all appear again in court Nov. 28.

Grogan’s lawyer, Paul Downs, told The Independent, 208 cars were stolen and over 150 are still missing.

The cars which have been recovered were repossessed from car enthusiasts who had no idea the vehicles had been stolen. Many are out tens of thousands of dollars for the vehicle and restoration costs.

Mona and Wayne Evoy are among those whose cars have already been taken by OPP.
“We are all out 10s of 1000s of dollars, and most of us saved for many, many years.
“And some people…they saved for something for their retirement, and the bought these cars,” she says.

The Evoys set up a social media page to communicate with others in the same boat and have also launched an online fundraiser to hire a lawyer to try to recover their money.

OPP continue to repossess the vehicles from the car enthusiasts in Eastern Ontario and Quebec.