Brooklyn Driving School Owners Accused Of Running High-Tech DMV Cheating Scheme
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A Brooklyn couple is facing federal charges for running a high-tech scheme to beat the DMV. They allegedly rigged the results of hundreds of commercial drivers license tests.
Local, state and federal investigators spent hours at N&Y Professional Service Line driving school in Sunset Park, collecting evidence against the owners Ying Wai Phillip Ng and his wife, Pui Kuen Ng.
Investigators believe the alleged high-tech scam helped hundreds of people pass the multiple choice commercial drivers license test at DMV offices.
The feds say the driving school would equip test takers with a jacket that had a tiny camera and transmitter hidden in the sleeve. They were also allegedly given a pager set to vibrate and then send them in to take the commercial driver's license test.
They were given instructions to point the camera at each question and wait. Outside the DMV, Phillip Ng allegedly waited in a vehicle, monitoring the feed from the camera on a laptop before sending a signal to the pager to vibrate 2, 4 or 6 times, depending on whether the test answer was A B or C.
"This is a crime, has to be a crime," said one man who spoke to CBS 2's Tony Aiello.
"It's shocking -- shocking that somebody took the time to think up an idea like that," said Flatbush resident John St. Jean.
Investigators said the Ng's told an undercover they'd been conducted the scheme for ten years. Among the drivers they allegedly helped is Kin Yeu Cheung, a bus driver facing manslaughter charges for an accident last May that killed four people in Virginia.
The Ng's are charged with mail fraud and the DMV has moved to yank their license to operate.
Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said the accused put the public at risk in order to line their pockets. The couple charged an undercover agent $1,800 for help passing the test.
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