Owners and employees of an Albert Lea car dealership were charged for allegedly stealing manufacturer’s incentives by making up sales, and with dodging sales tax charges, Tuesday.

County Attorney Craig Nelson charged Denis Christopher Flaherty, 58, Ellen Marie Flaherty, 57, and Jerald Jerome Montag, 41, of Flaherty Auto & Truck Center with theft by swindle and motor vehicle sales-tax fraud. Sean Timothy Flaherty, 36, was also charged with swindle. No arrests were made.

According to the criminal complaints, Flaherty and his employees allegedly bought eight cars at their own dealership between 1999 and 2002, receiving cash-back incentives from General Motors and a GM employee discount. They allgedly resold those cars without recording their purchases to evade sales taxes and registration fees, making a profit and pocketing the incentives.

Most of the cars were returned to the dealer’s stock shortly after the first purchase, the complaints said. Some others were not even delivered from the shop and were resold to a second buyer, the investigation report says.

They allegedly gained more than $35,000 by defrauding GM and $10,000 by circumventing the taxes and fees, besides the profit from the resale of the vehicles, Nelson said.

The investigation started in February of last year when the State Patrol Vehicle Crimes Task Force raided the dealership on North Bridge Avenue, after the agency confirmed the shop made an unauthorized sale of a GMC pickup truck. Sales records seized revealed the series of in-house sales without title transfers.

Nelson did not charge the corporation; that would have triggered sanctions on the business operation if convicted.

Owner Denis Flaherty declined to comment, saying that he has not seen the criminal complaint. He and the other three accused are expected to show up in court June 26.