East Naples mechanic arrested, accused of ripping off clients

An East Naples mechanic was behind bars Friday accused of bilking clients at his auto shop, according to the Collier County Sheriff's Office.

Brian C. Battaglia, 44, listed in a Sheriff's report as living in an Estero hotel, demanded payment up front for repairs that were then never made and wrote refund checks that bounced, then threatened customers when they said they would report him to authorities.

"My concern in trying to get something done. It wasn't going to stop with us," said Dolores Hanyon, whose husband Francis Milazzo took his Lincoln Towncar to Battaglia's FJB Motorsports to have the transmission fixed in May.

After a week of Battaglia's promises to return the car and $1,100 down payment for the repairs, Milazzo went to the shop at 4006 Progress Ave.

The fuel had been siphoned. The battery was dead. The transmission was untouched. He had the car towed to another mechanic because it was inoperable. After paying $1,600 at the second mechanic, and never seeing a refund Battaglia promised, the couple were out close to $3,000.

"Greed clouds your judgment," Hanyon said. "We were so excited to get a deal."

Battaglia's arrest report lists five victims from March to June. One client took in an Audi A6, an instead of several interior switches being replaced with new ones as necessary, they were painted. He asked another customer repeatedly for more money for the same job, then turned over a car that had not been repaired at all.

One woman purchased a car from Battaglia with cash after hers was totaled in a crash. When he never delivered the vehicle as promised, according to reports, the woman asked for her money back.

"Where I come from once you involved detectives and attorneys stupid *** taping an silly threats its all over ..." Battaglia told her in a text message, according to the arrest report.

Battaglia faces two felony and three misdemeanor fraud charges. The total amount of money lost by the victims was undisclosed in the report.

The yellow door to FJB Motorsports, with block decal letters near the top that read "Complete auto repair," was locked Friday afternoon. Calls to a phone number scrawled in marker on the door, which matches a phone number Battaglia listed online for the shop, were routed directly to a voice-mail box.

Chuck Niesen, whose auto repair shop flanks FJB Motorsports, said Battaglia opened for business next door six to eight months ago.

Battaglia constant problems with customers irked Niesen, who has run his company in that location for 25 years.

"Nothing but trouble since the day he moved in here," Niesen said.

Collier deputies arrested Battaglia as he drove a Porsche near his shop Thursday.