Dealer Brent Brown, owner of Brent Brown Automotive Group, which sells Toyota, Chevrolet and Dodge cars, termed the fine excessive. "The thing is, there was no one harmed," he said. "Not a single customer was hurt or even complained."

Brown called the problem a "clerical error" that stemmed from his purchase of a Chevy and Dodge dealership in 2002.

"At that time, an employee at the dealership we acquired was handling all of the license applications," he said. "She did the work for about six months and then just stopped doing it, and we didn't catch it."

Originally, a tax commission investigator involved in the case suggested fining Brown's dealership $1.1 million for allowing up to 51 unlicensed sales personnel to sell 306 cars during the 20-month period.

The penalty was lowered after the state determined the fine should be based upon the number of unlicensed personnel and not the number of transactions they conducted, said Tax Commission spokesman Charlie Roberts.

Roberts said the $135,000 fine was justified considering the number of sales people who didn't submit the proper license application to the state and the number of cars that eventually were sold.

Utah law requires automobile sales personnel to complete an application form, get fingerprinted and submit to a background check to ensure they do not have a history of sex crimes, fraud or automobile theft. They also must pay an annual fee of $31.

However, under Utah law, murderers, kidnappers and other perpetrators of violent crimes aren't excluded from getting a state license to sell automobiles. "That is just the way the law reads," Roberts said.

Brown appealed the fine but a state court ruled against him. "There are some states where auto sales people don't have to be licensed at all," he said.

Utah Automobile Dealers Association Executive Director Craig Bickmore said his organization plans to lobby the Legislature next session to place a cap on such fines. That plan, he acknowledged, was sparked by the "excessive" fines levied against the Brent Brown dealership.

steve@sltrib.com