3 sentenced for selling driver's licenses through DMV office

September 9, 2010 | 3:09 pm

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,â€