3 sentenced for selling driver's licenses through DMV office

A former DMV worker and two of his acquaintances will serve jail time for selling California driver’s licenses for $500 to people who had not passed the driving test.

The California attorney general’s office accused Vacaville residents Donald McGowan, 55, and Maricar Bazemore, 37, of setting up the sales. Former state employee Rodney Wheatly, 46, of Fairfield is accused of issuing the licenses at the Department of Motor Vehicles’ office in Napa, about 35 miles northeast of San Francisco.

All three pleaded no contest to one felony charge each of unlawful access to a computer system. McGowan and Bazemore were sentenced to six months in Sacramento County Jail, and Wheatly was given a sentence of one year.

 

“This trio of characters allowed wannabe drivers to acquire a California driver’s license without passing a single driving test, thereby jeopardizing the safety of thousands of Californians by putting ill-prepared drivers on our roads and highways,” California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown said Thursday.

DMV undercover investigators received a tip late last year about the scam and dispatched an agent posing as a person who failed the driving test and tried to buy a license.

The agent met with McGowan and Bazemore at a Taco Bell restaurant in Vacaville, and they instructed the agent to go to Wheatly’s window at the DMV office after completing an application.

The agent gave $500 to Bazemore and McGowan and received a temporary driver’s license.

-- Rong-Gong Lin II

Comments

[All Hallows Eve]

Hmm, so it does happen?

I often ask myself while driving if other drivers bought their license instead of testing for it.

[Joe]

No wonder half the drivers in CA. can't drive!

[My view means nothing.]

They got caught on one. How many others did they do and not get caught? As Joe said, "No wonder half the drivers in CA can't drive!"

[pradey]

6 months and a year for sentencing??? what's to stop them & others to do the same thing, it's not even a slap on the wrist......

[Samantha]

Not surprising..I've seen it happen at the Arleta DMV for much less than $500. Maybe the DMV should screen it's employees better before hiring or create more requirements?

[patrick]

How hard is it to pass a driving test? Everybody involved should spend serious time in jail for sheer stupidity.

[Jim M.]

It's still that easy for a worthless excuse of a state employee to sell a CDL? Unbelievable! And the punishment is 6 months and 12 months in jail? Wow! California- The Corruption State.

[TMann]

There are millions of unlicensed drivers in California mostly all of them illegal immigrants. Notice how often these drivers flee the scene whenever they're in an accident.

[Walter Moore]

I don't see anything wrong with that ,They should go after the real crook (all the Politicians).

[notgreedy]

Many of the drivers I see do not seem to have a clue as to safe driving. Among other vioations, they speed, tailgate, do not use simple turn signals, and fail to yield.
This is plague that kills and injures 1.5 million people on the US highways every year, yet the government seems reluctant to make money enforcing the laws to save lives.

[Olden Atwoody]

It's the Draconian immigration laws that force people to buy a driver's license. That, and the inability to pass a test!

[LEE POWERS]

I THINK THE PUNISHMENT SHOULD BE A LOT MORE SEVERE THIS IS A WAY FOR TERRORISTS, THIEVES,CHILD MOLESTERS , AND MURDERERS TO HAVE A "LEGAL" FAKE I.D. 6 MONTHS IS NOT ENOUGH OF A DETERRENT AND THE FINE SHOULD BE A LOT HIGHER .