Have you ever encountered an clueless driver on the road and wondered how in the world they got their license? They might have purchased it if you’re driving in the New York metropolitan area. A joint operation of federal, state and local agencies announced on Tuesday that it had uncovered a fraud scheme operated by a Queens driving school and three state DMV employees.
The school was allegedly selling licenses for $2,000. These weren’t fake IDs, as the drivers were registered in the DMV database and received cards like anyone else.
The aptly-named Operation Road Test involved the Department of Homeland Security, the New York State Inspector General’s Office and Staten Island’s attorney general.
T&E Driving School in Queens targeted Chinese immigrants from Fujian with ads on social media for the illicit service, WNBC reports. Once a customer handed over the money, a driving school employee would pose as the customer for the road test in Staten Island. In some cases, the driving school would just bribe the DMV examiner to bypass the test and input fake grades. New York State Inspector General Lucy Lang said:
“The state employees indicted here sold out not just the safety of their fellow New Yorkers, but they sold out their oaths of office. The conduct uncovered in this investigation represents a shocking betrayal of public trust.”
Hundreds Of Drivers Might Have Bought Licenses
The scheme was exposed with the help of an undercover NYPD detective who spoke the Fujianese dialect and posed as a customer, according to SILive.com.
The alleged perpetrators could face up to seven years in jail for tampering with state records and identity theft. It’s not clear how many fraudulent licenses were distributed by the scheme, but officials stated that a DMV examiner in Staten Island administers 1,500 road tests per year. They are now searching for hundreds of drivers who may have bought a license.
The driver’s license, in most cases, is the only line of defense in ensuring that people drive safely on public roads. However, many could claim that the road test required to receive a license is entirely arbitrary and doesn’t effectively gauge someone’s competence behind the wheel. While I don’t think the practical exam should be abolished, there’s undoubtedly a need to raise the standard of the drivers allowed to operate a two-ton machine capable of travelling at least a mile per minute.
