Houston Texas based Aple Auto Cash Express, Inc. has been ordered to repay $167,414 to 58 consumers. The company claims to be a legitimate Rental Purchase company, therefore subject to Oklahoma's Rental-Purchase Act. The company was ordered to reimburse customers after the High Court found that, in reality, Aple was operating their rent-to-own business as a loan service without following loan industry guidelines.

Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson said "Aple was basically purchasing used vehicles from people and then 'selling' them back to the same people on a rent-to-own basis." He added, "Instead of a rent-to-own business we believed Aple was providing supervised loans without following the legal requirements for that type of transaction."

According to Edmondson, there are two primary differences in a rental-purchase agreement and a supervised loan transaction. "First, in a rental-purchase agreement the consumer does not first own the property in question," Edmondson said. "Since Aple's customers were giving the company the title to their vehicle as part of the transaction, this clearly was not the case. "Also, in a rental-purchase agreement, the customer makes payments to the business only as long as the consumer is in possession of the property. In a supervised loan, the business gives cash to the consumer and the consumer pays it back with interest, which is exactly the way Aple was operating."

Under Oklahoma law, rent-to-own businesses are not required to disclose the effective interest consumers ultimately pay to own the product, but the disclosure is required for supervised loans.

Assistant Attorney General Walter Jenny argued the case on behalf of the Oklahoma Department of Consumer Credit.

The Department of Consumer Credit is currently in the process of contacting Aple's customers and mailing refund checks. Some consumers will also receive the title to their vehicle.

"Many of the consumers that fell victim of this scam did so because they were in a desperate financial situation and needed money quickly," said Donald Hardin, Administrator of Oklahoma Commission on Consumer Credit. "We have already mailed checks to the people we've been able to contact, and we hope to mail all the checks before Christmas," said Hardin.