A now-former Hyundai of Milledgeville employee and his accomplice are facing felony charges after reportedly using an elderly woman’s identity to co-sign for three different vehicles, each costing more than $40,000.
Christopher Paschal, who worked in the dealership’s finance department, was charged with two counts of forgery (party to a crime), two counts of exploitation and intimidation of a disabled or elderly adult and two counts of conspiracy to commit a felony. Meanwhile, Phillipe Denzel Scott, 29, was charged with two counts of exploitation and intimidation of a disabled or elderly adult, two counts of conspiracy to commit a felony, two counts of first degree forgery, two counts of identity theft, as well as probation violation.
Exploitation and intimidation of a disabled or elderly adult is the name of the criminal statute in Georgia. In this case, there was no intimidation. There was, however, exploitation. In the incident report, the victim describes Scott as her “god nephew.”
Scott originally visited the dealership to purchase an $8,000 vehicle, which is when he began talking to Paschal in the finance department.
“Mr. Paschal informed Mr. Scott that his credit definitely wasn’t great,” said Maj. Brandon Sellers with the Milledgeville Police Department.
Paschal and Scott then continued their talk, and Scott conveyed to Paschal that he had a family member with outstanding credit.
“They then get in the car and drive all the way to Hancock County to get (the victim) to co-sign,” Sellers said.
Over the course of the next six months, Scott then purchased three more cars from the Hyundai dealership, with the victim listed as the co-signer. This is where the fraud part comes in, and Scott and Paschal are accused of forging a photocopy of the victim’s signature to co-sign.
The victim didn’t discover what’d transpired until “she went to the bank on 1/27/26 and was informed that she is now $141,419 in debt and has three new cars in her name.” This is when the MPD investigation began, and it required a number of search warrants and court orders. In the meantime, Paschal was fired from the dealership.
“I will say that the new owner (of Hyundai of Milledgeville) was very cooperative,” Sellers said. “He’d already terminated Mr. Paschal’s employment.”