JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The owner of ASAP Towing turned himself into the Police Memorial Building Wednesday and was charged with grand theft and organized fraud, according to his arrest report.
A JSO investigation revealed that Vicente Serrano, who goes by Vince, “defrauded the State of Florida the approximate amount of $193,958.54″ from 2020 to 2024, his arrest report states.
ASAP Towing has been surrounded by controversy this past year over allegations of the company “preying” on residents.
In November 2023, the News4JAX I-TEAM investigated several complaints from residents of a St. Johns County neighborhood who had their cars towed from their driveways by ASAP Towing.
“Everybody’s in fear. It’s like the towing company is traveling through the neighborhood at night, waiting to pull cars and just looking,” a resident, who did not want to be identified, told News4JAX in 2023.
In July, JSO raided ASAP’s four Jacksonville locations, serving warrants related to a theft and fraud investigation.
On July 31, a letter from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office obtained by the News4JAX I-TEAM revealed ASAP Towing was permanently banned from JSO use in January 2024 following a JSO audit that found the company failed to report tens of thousands of dollars as required by state law.
The JSO letter showed that ASAP failed to report $181,000 of overages in a timely manner in 2023.
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JSO also said in July it believed people at the towing company may be concealing evidence in violation of Florida theft and fraud statutes.
The JSO investigation appeared to be following the money made from unclaimed cars sold by ASAP Towing. When a sale yields more money than it costs to impound the vehicle, those funds are supposed to be filed with the Clerk of Court.
The warrant, provided to the I-TEAM by ASAP Towing, showed JSO sought documents pertaining to the sale of vehicles, bank statements for all locations, or “any instrumentalities possessed or used in connection with the illegal activity.”
According to Serrano’s arrest report, during the investigation, JSO detectives verified “discrepancies” and saw “excessive deductions.”
JSO said Serrano was illegally pocketing proceeds from the sale of towed cars whose owners couldn’t be located.
Donald “Marshall” Adkison, who is the past president of the Jacksonville Wrecker Association, explained tow companies are only allowed to pocket sale proceeds for certain services.
“We can only charge what’s in the city ordinance, [such as] hook up, wench time or extra labor,” Adkison said.
Adkison said the incident report suggests ASAP was improperly pocketing fees, and this would harm consumers.
“Let’s take the worst-case scenario. First, is someone dies. They don’t have much money...the family doesn’t have much money, and you sell a vehicle for four or $5,000 and the tow bill was only $1,000. That’s $3,000 that should go to the family,” Marshall said.
Serrano previously told the I-TEAM he thought JSO was investigating him in retaliation for a lawsuit he filed against JSO for removing ASAP from their towing operators list– and that he hadn’t done anything wrong.
“You know, a lot of people don’t want to see people do well,” Serrano said.
Serrano was booked into the Duval County jail Wednesday morning and released on his own recognizance.