A Lengthy Island DMV supervisor scammed the system by having her sister don disguises to take business license exams for unqualified wanna-be truck drivers, prosecutors stated Thursday.
Division of Motor Automobiles supervisor Kanaisha Middleton, 33, oversaw the cash-for-license scheme for greater than six months, using her older sister, 35-year-old Jaime Middleton, to put on disguises and even faux mustaches to take business driving exams for others, the Nassau DA’s workplace stated.
“She’s in disguise, coming in numerous clothes and even gong as far as to put on faux mustaches, beards, glasses, masks — virtually like a spy in an espionage thriller,” District Lawyer Anne Donnelly stated.
“These disguises have been all about promoting the scheme for the cameras,” she stated. “[The real applicants] by no means set foot within the Backyard Metropolis DMV, by no means clicked a single button to take the required check.
“Cheaters by no means win,” Donnelly added throughout a press convention.
The Middleton’s allegedly enlisted two different DMV workers — Tawanna Whitfield, 36, and Satoya Mitchell, 35 — to drag off the rip-off, charging as much as $3,000 per license examination, prosecutors stated.
Thankfully, the precise candidates couldn’t dodge a required street check for a business driver’s license, and solely one of many 9 “purchasers” have been really capable of get authorized after getting behind the wheel.
“We’re speaking about drivers who don’t know the foundations of the street and who previous to this had by no means handed a [commercial driver’s license] check,” Donnelly stated. “They have been doubtlessly sitting behind the wheel of a 20,000-pound tractor trailer. Make no mistake — this scheme posted an actual hazard.”
All 4 are charged with corrupting the federal government, impairing the integrity of a authorities licensing examination, tampering with public information, and falsifying enterprise information, and withstand seven years in jail if convicted.
The DMV scammers weren’t the one ones named within the 51-count indictment.
Three of the candidates — James Nurse, 42, Omesh Mohan, 42, and Rene Sarduy, 44 — have been hit with tampering with public information and falsifying enterprise information, prosecutors stated.
Nurse, a City of Hempstead sanitation employee, was the one one to cross his street check, and used the license to run a recycling truck on the town, whereas Mohan, who was not so fortunate on the street check, had beforehand served 9 months for vehicular assault.
Authorities are nonetheless on the lookout for the opposite fraudsters.
In keeping with prosecutors, the rip-off started in March 2023, and went on for no less than six months.
Kanaisha Middleton’s sister handed all however one of many in-person DMV exams she took whereas pretending to be a legit license applicant, the DA stated.
In all, the crew charged between $1,500 to $3,000 for 9 business and one passenger license check.
However the rip-off fell aside after an alert DMV worker observed that the “man” taking one check was really a lady in disguise, and tipped off the state Inspector Common’s Workplace, who referred to as the DA.
Kanaisha Middleton turned herself in on Wednesday and was arraigned on the costs, whereas the remainder of the accused conspirators have been arrested over the previous 9 days, prosecutors stated.
“They bought out, not simply the protection of fellow New Yorkers, however their oaths of workplace,” New York State Inspector Common Lucy Lang stated throughout Thursday’s press convention.
“Bypassing that safeguard is way from a innocent shortcut, it’s a harmful menace to public security,” Lang stated. “Households, commuters and pedestrians throughout our state depend upon the integrity of the licensing course of.”
