Barbera's attorney, Stephen LaCheen, said in an e-mail yesterday that Barbera "will continue to sell cars" at the dealership and that "title registrations are being handled through a temporary issuing agency during the dealership's expansion, to accommodate the addition of a new franchise and implementation of an expanded two-shift customer-service center."
LaCheen and a Barbera employee, Dave Roth, who returned a call by the Daily News to the dealership yesterday, both said the audit was "routine."
Roth, who said he is a "jack of all trades" at the dealership, denied that it was triggered by a customer complaint.
Klinger said she could not reveal the details of the complaint. But she said the audit was not routine or what PennDOT would call a "random audit."
She said this was the "first on-site audit" that PennDOT conducted at the dealership. She said in general, for random audits, State Police would not participate in such audits.
Barbera is serving three years' probation after pleading guilty in federal court last year to filing false tax returns in 2003 and 2004. At his November sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Jan DuBois ordered the first year of probation to be served under home detention, but allowed Barbera, 46, to leave his Gladwyne home for work and visits to the doctor.
Meanwhile, Barbera's dealership has been struck by a lack of electricity a few times this month, including last Friday.
Barbera, reached by the Daily News at his dealership Monday, said there was a "power failure."
But Peco Energy spokesman Ben Armstrong said yesterday that Peco shut off the dealership's electricity, and did so a few times this month. He said he could not disclose why it was shut off.
