Share/Bookmark

Fraud Prompts New Concerns about Tennessee Driver Licenses

CSDL, Thu, 05/20/2010 - 14:52

By Mark Bellinger
Nashville, Tenn.-  There are new concerns about who can get a Tennessee Driver license. The Tennessee Department of Safety, Homeland Security, and Metro Police are investigating. They're trying to figure out how one man received several different driver licenses using false names in a sixth-month period.
State officials said they're trying to determine if there is a loop hole in the system that allowed the suspect, Kimah Marsh to obtain the false identification.
Police showed NewsChannel 5 four Department of Safety printouts.  Lieutenant Mickey Garner Fraud who is over the Metro Police Department's fraud unit said, "What we have found is this one individual has gone to the Department or state of Tennessee and got driver licenses and IDs in at least three people's names."
One of the documents was a supposed to be Marsh's real driver license; police say the others are licenses Marsh obtained using fake information. Lieutenant Garner said, "He gets his picture put on there and now he goes out and commits crimes.  He is opening up checking accounts in other people's names.  Then he goes out and writes checks."
The photos show Marsh, but in one case the name is Andrew Gentry. According to the document, Gentry is a full foot taller than Marsh:Gentry is 6'2" and Marsh is 5'2".
Garner added, "We don't think he would do anything on an airplane, but that's the scary part. People are getting these IDs, and once again a government I-D gives you the right to get on an airplane."
Some people getting their licenses at the Hart Lane driver testing station wondered how he was able to get away with the same thing over and over again. But others were not so surprised.
Reba Tschaenn was there with her son. She said, "It's possible.  He could have gone in there and said he was anybody.  They didn't ask for a social security card, his old driver's license or anything."
Garner doesn't know how it's happening. "We don't know.  We just know he shows up the driver's license place and gets a drivers license or ID only from the state of Tennessee," he said.
A spokesman for the Department of Safety said state investigators have been working on the case for several weeks, and right now they can't comment.
According to the Tennessee Department of Safety's web site you need several documents to get a driver's license. To obtain a license, drivers need proof of U.S. citizenship, two forms of identification, two documents that prove Tennessee residence, and a social security card.
It seems like a lot, but police said Kimah Marsh was able to find a way to cheat the system. Police said they're looking for Marsh.  An arrest warrant charges him with forgery.  Garner said the people Marsh allegedly stole identities from have not come forward to report identity theft.
 
  • index
  • index
    •