There was indeed the manufacture of fake foreign driving licenses at the KS Driving School in Parc-Extension, which were used to help immigrants from Southeast Asia to illegally obtain the right to drive a heavy truck in the Canada, according to what the former receptionist of the establishment admitted to the court on Thursday.
Posted at 4:45 p.m.
Davinder Kaur pleaded guilty to charges of forging Indian driver’s licenses, trafficking identifying information and possessing forged documents between January 2018 and May 2019.
According to an agreed statement of facts filed in evidence by both parties, Ms.me Kaur was responsible for greeting customers at the driving school on rue Jean-Talon. She admitted to having transferred the personal information of customers to a person abroad who manufactured fake Indian driving licenses, to then coordinate the delivery of these fake licenses to customers on Quebec soil. She would then help them make appointments for driving tests with the aim of obtaining a class 1 license and being able to drive a heavy goods vehicle.
The accused was arrested last spring with a dozen other suspects as part of an investigation by the Sûreté du Québec called Project Partnership. The investigation had started following a denunciation by the Société d’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ), which suspected a network of manufacturing false documents for future truckers.
“This could jeopardize road safety, particularly due to the heavy transport of goods,” said the SAAQ in a denunciation cited in court.
A corrupt official complicit
Investigators say they found suspects fabricating fake driving licenses from India or Pakistan for customers who had “little or no driving experience”. The document said they had 36 months or more of road experience, a requirement for passing the heavy-duty driving test.
Also according to the investigative summaries, a corrupt employee of a SAAQ branch on Henri-Bourassa Boulevard, in Montreal, then helped the network to have foreign licenses recognized and to obtain a Quebec driver’s license as a equivalence.
After pleading guilty to all three counts, Mr.me Kaur received a discharge conditional upon serving 18 months probation and completing 120 hours of community service.
“He was a person who had a very limited role, who in my opinion was very peripheral to the thing. It was certainly not a leading head and it is reflected in the sentence which is nevertheless very lenient. She is a young woman with no criminal record with a future ahead of her, ”explains the defendant’s lawyer, Mr.e Adam Ginzburg.
The crown in this case was represented by Me Mikhail Babenko-Gofman and M.e Alik Dikijian, from the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions. The other defendants are still awaiting trial.