Judge warns immigrants about fake driver licenses

Asked for his driver's license in Traffic Court recently, a 38-year-old Jamaican-born man handed up an impressive looking gold-embossed booklet and an official-looking photo-ID card, both marked "International Driving Document."

Tucked inside was a receipt showing he'd paid a travel agency $80 for the documents.

What did he get for his money?

Nothing. The documents were worthless.

He was cited for driving without a license, and the court confiscated the documents.

"There's no such thing as an international driver's license, I don't care what it says," said Police Lt. Carl Ruhland, who works at Traffic Court (although there is an international permit for Americans driving abroad.)

"Maybe people think [the 'International Driving Document'] legitimizes their driving, but it doesn't," Ruhland said. "To be honest, I have to think a lot of people know you can't just go in and buy a driver's license. But they do it."

Traffic Court President Judge Thomasine Tynes said she has seen a growing number of immigrants who've bought the documents, apparently thinking it gives them permission to drive in the United States. Her message to them: Save your money.

"All these things are fake," Tynes said in an interview last week. "I see these people who come in and say, 'Oh, I've got a license,' and when you ask where they got this thing, they say, 'I bought it up on 4th Street.' "

Tynes showed this reporter a handful of documents she has confiscated in recent days from drivers, saying the documents are turning up more frequently in court.

"I see these every day," Tynes said. "I could make wallpaper with them."

Tynes said she wants foreign visitors to know they need a license from their home country to drive, and nothing they buy, however real it looks, will make them legal.

Technically, the documents aren't fake because, while they look official, they don't purport to be a driver's license or anything else official. Printed on the back of the ID card are the words "non-government issued."

The "International Driving Document" bears the embossed seal of the International Automobile Drivers Co. (IADC), a Brooklyn-based firm that will sell you the booklet and accompanying plastic ID card online for $45 plus shipping costs.

The company's Web site and a representative of One Stop Travel, which sells the documents for $80 in Philadelphia, both said the document is intended to be accompanied by a valid license from the driver's home country.

"It's a translation of your driver's license," said a woman who answered the phone at the IADC who declined to give her name.

Ruhland said a visitor to the United States can drive legally as long as he has the license of his home country and his passport or visa. Buying the "International Driving Document" adds nothing, he said.

Ruhland said if a visitor becomes a permanent resident, he or she should apply for a Pennsylvania license.

The IADC is not one of the two organizations authorized by the U.S. State Department to issue International Driving Permits.

Cynthia Brough, a spokeswoman for AAA, which is authorized to issue the permits, said they're different from the documents produced by the IADC in Brooklyn, which closely resemble the permits.

"The international driving permits are issued to Americans who are traveling to foreign countries, and they're translations of your U.S. driver's license to a foreign language," Brough said. "The reverse is not true. We don't issue anything to foreigners traveling in the U.S." *