A well-known Ferrari mechanic, Donnie Callaway, who has appeared with celebrities like Jay Leno, was jailed earlier this month for allegedly trying to sell a vintage car that he never owned.
Callaway, 60, is known for restoring Italian sports cars and maintaining a popular social media presence, with nearly 200,000 followers watching his work on the old-school vehicles and often bragging about buying artwork and living a lavish lifestyle.
The alleged “Ferrari savant” even appeared on an episode of Jay Leno’s Garage, where Jay allowed him to buy and restore a car he had dreamed of owning since childhood, but it appears he is also a career criminal and potentially a fraud.
Callaway was arrested on April 1 in Arizona on allegations that he tried to sell a Ferrari Daytona and a Ferrari 512BB to a collector without actually owning them. On his Instagram account, Callaway had been working on a 512BB in his most recent posts.
After an apparent sting operation set up by the would-be buyer, Callaway was arrested by county sheriffs, according to The Mercury News.
He was jailed and charged with theft, trafficking stolen property, forgery, and fraud, according to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.
Callaway is being held on a $400,000 cash bond and faces an arraignment on April 17.
While his reputation is considered good among some in the mechanic community, there had been complaints about his rates, including a $130,000 job on a Ferrari 328 in 2023 that left the customer saying he “should be SHUNNED” for the “monstrously high” prices.
An anonymous Instagram account was started to taunt Callaway and described him as a “swindler mechanic” who aims to “take your car apart and never put it back together.”
Callaway’s arrest has led to a reveal of a previous criminal record dating back decades, including convictions for burglary in 2001, grand theft and possession of a controlled substance in 2003, domestic violence in 2006, and perjury and extortion in 2012.
He likely faces more legal trouble, at least one other lawsuit and a legal declaration, for selling cars he didn’t own in the first place outside of the Arizona case.
Thomas Shaughnessy, a consultant and historian on Ferraris, filed in California Superior Court that Callaway tried to sell a Ferrari Monza that didn’t belong to him at an auto show in Paris.
The declaration may be connected to a separate lawsuit Callaway faces in the San Diego area, where a Belgian man named Arthur Teerlynck sued him last August for unfair business practices, breach of contract, fraud, and violations of California’s Automotive Repair Act.
The lawsuit claims that Callaway overcharged for restoring a 1973 Ferrari Daytona valued at $950,000, a 1961 Maserati 3500 Spyder Vignale valued at $825,000, a 1986 Ferrari 328 valued at $100,000, and a 1995 Rolls-Royce Flying Spur valued at $40,000.
Teerlynck argues that he paid $1.46 million to Callaway for services he was not licensed to do and also wrongfully assumed control over Teerlynck’s cars and tried to hide them from him.
Perhaps most outrageously, Callaway is accused of putting pieces in a $200,000 Ferrari Testarossa meant to make the engine fail on purpose and then posted about how damaged it was on Instagram.
Teerlynck is seeking fees and damages via a trial by jury, and Callaway has a trial scheduled to begin on August 14 and a court hearing on the status of Teerlynck’s lawsuit on May 14.
DailyMail.com reached out to an attorney for Callaway for comment, but no response was provided.
