Transport Department Weighs in on Fake Licenses
Since last week, News Five has been following reports of fake drivers’ licenses circulating in San Pedro. The Police in that municipality have made four arrests of persons who tried to renew those forged documents – transforming fake to real. It didn’t work, but that’s only because of the vigilance of persons at the San Pedro Town Board. The matter has caught the attention of the Department of Transport, and Chief Transport Officer Crispin Jeffries told News Five via phone that all persons in pertinent departments should take a second look at laminated drivers’ licenses brought in for renewal.
On the Phone: Crispin Jeffries, Chief Transport Officer
On the Phone: Crispin Jefferies
“The drivers’ licenses that were uncovered in San Pedro, taken in by the police are drivers license with a stamp similar to that used by the department of transport at the back of it. However all the other information, while they are similarities, there is nothing that can be indentified that it is exactly our cards that are being used across the country at this time.”
Mike Rudon
“Is the forgery good enough to fool…or to pass a random inspection or just a cursory inspection?”
Crispin Jefferies
“It can fool the enforcement people, or the people on the street but it does not fool the licensing authorities across the country who have all the other information that needs to be looked at. This specific card has a number of information on it that is obvious that the sharpest inspection on it would turn those up.”
Mike Rudon
“I assume an incident like this would highlight a need to move forward a little more quickly in terms of changing the types of licenses that are used. I know most of the country already uses the biometric card, is that a priority at the transport department at this time?”
Crispin Jeffries
“It is a priority at the transport department; it is high on the list of a soon to be introduced traffic management database which will include your driver’s license. We are not there yet but it should happen sometime by the end of this year. Most of our numbers for our driver’s license at this time is not more than five digits on the serial number on the back in red. There are other features like the main renewal or the information renewal that we don’t normally put on the card itself; we put that in one of the boxes at the back. So there are things that are obviously going to come to the attention of the licensing authority across the country and should come to the attention of the law enforcement officers. The only department that is using laminating cards is the department of transport and the digit in the back in red are not beyond the 5 digit series. Those are the two things I think I could tell people to look for when they are looking at drivers’ licenses”
