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Director commends employee for help in DMV fraud case

ITD Director Brian Ness recently sent his personal thanks to Carolyn Watts for her assistance in helping prosecutors with a complex Division of Motor Vehicles fraud investigation. Director Ness commended her for helping the investigative team gather evidence for the case.

“Over the past few months, the Idaho Transportation Department has had a difficult task of looking into fraudulent activities perpetrated at county DMV offices around the state. To address the problem, we brought together a team of department professionals from Internal Review, Economics/Research, Financial Services and the Division of Motor Vehicles.

“As part of that team, you were tasked with identifying counties with financial anomalies, differentiating fraudulent from legitimate activities, quantifying those fraudulent activities, identifying those persons responsible, understanding it how it was done, gathering evidence and assisting with the prosecution of those responsible. A very complex undertaking,” Ness said in a Feb. 11 letter to Watts.

During the recent trial and sentencing in Canyon County, your actins and participation in this process stood out to the prosecutor and judge. The judge remarked during his determination that your analysis was one of the most thorough that he has ever seen in his judicial career. Well done!

“On behalf of the Idaho Transportation Department, Board and the taxpayers of Idaho, please accept my personal thanks for your past and on-going efforts to detect and prevent fraudulent activities at the DMV,” the director wrote.