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Peter Loveras, 34, must also pay $7,500 in restitution, under the sentence imposed by Superior Court Judge Paul M. DePascale in Jersey City.
Loveras pleaded last December to bribery, admitting that he brokered illegal sales of driver’s licenses out of the Jersey City Motor Vehicle Agency to customers without the required six points of identification.
Loveras was arrested along with dozens of other people following investigations by the state Division of Criminal Justice and the Motor Vehicle Commission’s Division of Security, Investigation and Internal Audit into illegal brokering rings at five motor vehicle agencies.
The 40 defendants named in indictments unsealed in December 2011 were charged conspiracies to illegally sell driver’s licenses out of the East Orange, Edison, North Bergen and Lodi motor vehicle agencies.
In some cases, the customers — all foreign nationals — didn’t qualify for a license because they were in the U.S. illegally. In other cases, they lacked sufficient documentation. The customers paid $2,500 to $7,000 for a license or license renewal, and the MVC clerks and brokers split the proceeds.
Sonia Noel, 49, of Union City, a former clerk at the Jersey City Motor Vehicle Agency, was sentenced in September to four years, as well.
She pleaded guilty to second-degree conspiracy, admitting she entered false information into the MVC database in order to sell driver’s licenses to unauthorized applicants.
Her daughter, Melody Noel, who was also a clerk at the agency, pleaded guilty to third-degree tampering with public records, admitting she assisted in processing the application for one of the illegal licenses sold by her mother. She was sentenced to probation and community service.
A customer, Hernan Chica-Tamayo, 54, of Hackensack, was also sentenced to probation and community service.
“Through the advanced technology of the MVC’s new Facial Scrub program and aggressive prosecutions like this one, we will detect and punish those who traffic in fraudulently issued driver’s licenses,” said Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa.
“The MVC has implemented cutting-edge security measures for digital driver’s licenses, and we will continue to work with MVC to police any abuse of this crucial form of identification,” said DCJ Director Elie Honig. “This prison sentence should deter others who would consider dealing in black-market licenses.”
Deputy Attorney General Frank J. Brady Jr. prosecuted the case and handled the sentencing for the DCJ’s Specialized Crimes Bureau.
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