CDL Fraud Probe Targets False Addresses

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Several people who obtained commercial driver’s licenses from a southern Missouri trucking school gave false home addresses, and state officials acknowledge they currently have no way to stop the practice, the Associated Press reported.An analysis by The Kansas City Star newspaper found numerous examples of multiple drivers, all licensed through the South Central Career Center Truck Driver Training School in West Plains, Mo., claiming to live at the same Missouri addresses, AP said.At least a dozen people who got CDLs said they lived at the same Kansas City address, which was that of a small auto-sales business, whose owner said he has never heard of the drivers, AP reported.Lax licensing rules and a lack of oversight make it relatively easy to get CDL, industry officials said.One person who obtained a license through the driving school by falsely claiming to live in Kansas City crashed his tractor-trailer with an Oklahoma state trooper’s car in October, killing both drivers, the Kansas City Star reported. The driver actually lived in Ohio.Using a false address to obtain a commercial driver's license is a class A misdemeanor in Missouri, AP said.A 2005 federal Department of Transportation report found that CDL fraud schemes had been investigated in 23 states during the last five years, AP reported.