SGI says it will obey court ruling in case of suspected fraudulent Corvette

Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI) has declared it will obey the court's ruling to release the name and address of the Saskatchewan person who allegedly has a fraudulent copy of a vintage car.

It had previously refused to release the information citing privacy reasons underThe Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

Florida man Robert Bonanno's vintage car, which he considers to be the authentic vehicle, has the same vehicle identification number (VIN) as another identical vehicle registered in Saskatchewan.

On Aug. 31,the Court of Queen's Bench for Saskatchewan ordered SGI to release the name and address of the Sask. vehicle ownerto Bonanno and his lawyer.

SGIreleased a statement on the ruling Monday.

"We respect the court's decision and will abide by it," the statement said.

"SGI values our customers' privacy. Our position is that vehicle registration information contains personal information and on that basis, we declined to share personal information with a third party. However, the court disagreed with SGI's position and we will respect that decision."

Cecil Snyder, the treasurer of the Regina Corvette Club, said there are ways to check the history of a vehicle at the time of purchase.

He said he does not think he would be opposed toSGIreleasing that information if he was in the same situation.

Snyder, who owns multiple Corvettes, said he can understand whyBonannowould want to be able to contact the owner of the vehicle registered in Saskatchewan.

He added that the lengths that buyers go to in order to check the authenticity of the vehicle also depend on their reason for buying.

"If you're trying to buy a vehicle as an investment then obviously the authenticity is important," he said.

"If you're just buying a vehicle to drive ... whether it's a duplicate of some other vehicle isn't necessarily an issue."

He said the likelihood that a vehicle could be a fraud increases with the value of the car. Corvette models with certain features are more valuable than others.

"It's reasonably easy to check if it's a poor job of replicating a car," Snyder.

"If somebody has spent a great deal of time trying to replicate a car then it's a little more difficult."

With files from Alicia Bridges