A former assistant sales manager at Chevrolet, Buick, Pontiac, GMC of Milledgeville defrauded General Motors Corp. using a fellow employee’s identity, Baldwin County Sheriff’s Detective Corey Goble said.

John Giovanetti Jr., 30, is charged with two counts of felony theft and one count of computer forgery. He is the son of John C. Giovanetti Sr., former general manager of the Toyota, Buick, Pontiac, GMC of Milledgeville auto dealership. The two were fired from their jobs in August. Police do not believe Giovanetti Sr., who was indicted on federal charges of wire fraud and bank fraud in Florida, participated in his son’s crimes.

“Giovanetti Sr. had no involvement in his son’s crimes,” Goble said.

When hired at the Chevrolet dealership, Giovanetti Jr. was given limited access to a secure Web site called GM Dealerworld, Goble said. Only one person at the dealership has full and unlimited access, but Giovanetti was given enough access to add users, Goble said.

“He went in and created another user name beside the one created for himself,” Goble said. “He created another one in the name of the service manger, who had unlimited access.”

Unlimited access allowed Giovanetti to order gift cards and access records of past commercial vehicle sales for which no incentives were given, Goble said.

“He reopened that sale information, applied for the gift card and had it sent to him,” Goble said.

The gift cards were meant only for customers and are part of an incentive program for people who buy commercial vehicles from GM.

“Hypothetically, you purchase a commercial truck from GM and you are plumber. The vehicle comes equipped with ladder racks, but you have no need of a ladder as a plumber. Instead of taking the racks off and deducting them from the price, GM would take the ladder racks off, keep the price the same and give the customer a $500 gift card to businesses like Lowes, Home Depot, Best Buy and other places were they could purchase items for their business,” Goble said.

David Thompson, a fellow employee, was working with Giovanetti and received one $500 card himself, Goble said. Thompson is charged with one count of felony computer theft.

“This is an ingenious crime,” Goble said.

The two men were caught when Giovanetti sent one of the cards to a friend’s home, Goble said.

“That friend got upset that he had used his address (and) called the dealership, which then looked back into the records and discovered what Giovanetti had done,” Goble said.

Giovanetti also ordered a truck before he was fired from the dealership, and the dealership was tipped off when GM called about the order, Goble said.

Giovanetti Jr. was arrested in September in Polk County, Fla., on a theft by conversion charge and was transferred to Baldwin County Jail in October. He was released from Baldwin County Jail last week on a $16,000 property bond Giovanetti Sr. signed, Goble said.