Driving school suspended as fraud charges are filed

The owners of and three employees at Academy Driving School, the state’s largest, have been charged with multiple counts of forgery and fraud, after giving false information to the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).

According to a news release, the state police have been assisting the DMV Compliance Review Unit in an investigation that began in the early part of this year. A search warrant was executed on May 1. Records were seized from the school’s offices in Watertown and Waterbury.

On Oct. 21, the school’s owners, Joaquin “Jack� Sousa, 52, and his wife, Sharon Sousa, 51, of Middlebury were arrested and charged with 104 counts of second-degree conspiracy to commit forgery, two counts of falsely certifying as to administration of oath and two counts of criminal impersonation. Sharon Sousa was also charged with one count of second-degree forgery.

Three employees were charged with second-degree forgery. Megan Relyea, 30,of Waterbury was charged with four counts. Shannon Rohner, 26, of Waterbury, was charged with five counts. Jennifer Angelicola, 30, of Waterbury, faces 95 counts. They were fired after the arrests.

Bond for each of the five was $10,000. They were released and are to appear in Waterbury Court Nov. 7. The Sousas will also appear at a DMV hearing Dec. 3, where their instructors’ licenses and state certification for the school will be considered for revocation.

The DMV says Academy falsified documents, issued licenses to students under the age of 16, obtained learners permits without parental consent and put its students behind the wheel of unsafe vehicles.

Jack Sousa told The Journal only the forgery charges are legitimate, that the falsified documents did not affect the caliber of driver education offered by the school and that three employees were producing the fake documents without his and his wife’s knowledge.

“I plan to fight this with every resource I have,� Sousa said. “I’ll spend my life savings if I have to. My dad started this business with one vehicle. I have worked 12-hour days for the past 32 years to make it a business to be proud of. We will continue to stay in business. If my wife and I did something wrong, we will pay our dues. But it’s not going to come out that way.�

Driver education classes are scheduled to begin Nov. 3 at Housatonic Valley Regional High School. Students there have been taking driver training with Academy for 25 years. Sousa was adamant that classes and his business will go on as usual.

A whistle blower’s claims

The investigation began with a complaint under the state’s whistle-blower law, filed by former DMV employee James Ricci. On televised news broadcasts, Ricci claimed that before he retired, he alerted his DMV superiors about numerous violations he allegedly uncovered at the school, but was ignored.

Sousa told The Journal that Ricci regularly brought complaints against his and other driving schools in the state, and even wrote up fellow DMV inspectors.

“I believe the DMV was not responsive to his complaints because they weren’t legitimate. You can cry wolf only so many times,� Sousa said.

Seeking a solution to a problem

Sousa’s story is that the forgeries were produced by his employees as part of student paperwork compiled for submission to the DMV. The agency requires proof of residency, which must include a piece of mail recently sent to the student. Sousa said few 16-year-olds receive mail, and parents often don’t include the required piece of mail with paperwork sent to the school. Academy has nine employees who work full time processing DMV paperwork.

“What three of our employees were doing was taking a piece of junk mail they found in the office and creating a piece of mail with the student’s name and address on it. They would simply write out the envelope and stick it in with the paperwork. There was nothing in mine or my wife’s handwriting. We got in trouble because the employees signed statements saying we told them to do it.�

Sousa admitted that, as owners, they have a degree of responsibility. The administrative charges levied against them reflect that.

“To put it in perspective, we have more than 50 locations and about 12,000 students per year. We can’t monitor every single set of paperwork that comes through. These allegations go back five or six years. That’s almost 80,000 pieces of mail with 104 slipups.�

Sousa said the employees had nothing to gain with the forgeries accept to make their job a little easier.

“I’m not defending what they did, but I know how difficult it can be to deal with this issue. I have issued a plea to the DMV in the past asking why they require a piece of mail when the DMV itself has mailed the kid a permit. We pick the students up at their house for lessons. They are not lying to us about where they live. And I have to say the parents get huffy with our employees. They are being asked to produce a document that doesn’t exist.�