Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks during a 2024 news conference announcing a crackdown on ghost license plates prevalent in the New York City region. County Clerk Greg Carlson says fraudulent tolls levied against Chautauqua County residents are often coming from ghost plates.

County Clerk Greg Carlson said he can find no proof that county DMV employees participated in any fraud that resulted in fraudulent tolls billed to county residents.

Carlson wrote a guest essay that can be found on Page A5 of today’s edition of The Post-Journal. In the essay, Carlson said he reviewed all 41,371 sets of plates surrendered to the county’s three DMV locations. There have been 30 to 40 reports of fines and fees for plates surrendered to county DMVs. In lesser numbers, fraudulent tolls were reported for plates still assigned to county motorists. When Carlson traced the plate surrenders back to the cashiers who executed the transactions, there was no identifiable pattern. Fraudulent tolls were received for plates surrendered at all three DMV locations, and to multiple cashiers.

“After a thorough review of all available evidence, I have complete faith and confidence that my DMV staff is not involved in any criminal activity with license plates surrendered at our DMVs,” Carlson said.

The county has changed the procedure it follows when license plates are surrendered. In the past, plate destruction was to be executed or supervised by a DMV employee before plates were salvaged. Now, the county DMV employee who receives the surrendered plate from a customer personally destroys the plate at the end of their shift.

“Though the obsolete procedure was out of compliance, it was most likely not the cause of the fraudulent tolls for surrendered plates,” Carlson said. “The old process was in place for years prior to any reports of fraudulent tolls being charged to county residents.”

Erik Anderson and Amanda Griffin of Jamestown had their old plates properly destroyed by the DMV in 2024, only to be buried under more than $9,200 in fraudulent tolls, speeding tickets and parking violations issued in New York City and New Jersey. Clearing their names took months of phone calls and outside intervention before the bogus toll debt was finally erased. Robert and Lorie Grover of Bemus Point, who were hit with repeated fraudulent toll charges and even had police show up at their home in connection with a $250,000 robbery in New York City tied to their stolen plate number. Borrello said it shouldn’t be that difficult to remove bogus charges and fines for stolen license plates. Mark Schroeder, state DMV commissioner, told state Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, during budget testimony that license plate handling issues in the county are considered resolved.

“There’s a couple of areas of it,one of which is that we were aware that DMV and the State Police, maybe there was some duplicate plates, so we’ve had some very clear conversations with them and I do believe that that’s been resolved,” Schroeder said. “And the situation where, you know we have over 130 DMV offices across New York state, and so we’ve had a situation in Western New York, at a Western New York county, and we’re working with them, the County Clerk’s office, and we have been guiding them. … We’re really working on this and I feel very comfortable that it’s behind us.”

Carlson said other clerks he’s talked with say they are dealing with similar issues that the clerks say are tied to Automated License Plate Recognition technology. Many fraudulent tolls are coming from New York City, which Carlson said isn’t surprising given the desire by some to avoid congestion pricing when driving into the city from neighboring states or suburbs. Many of the toll issues that hit Chautauqua County residents are likely intentionally altered or duplicated plates, called ghost plates, that yield license plates matching plates previously or currently in use by other drivers.

Carlson said he supports legislation introduced by Borrello that would increase penalties for those who use ghost plates. Borrello has introduced legislation (S.8506) that would elevate a first offense from a misdemeanor to a Class E felony, with up to one year in jail and a mandatory minimum fine of $500; elevate a second offense within ten years to a Class D felony, with 1-3 years in prison, a fine of no less than $1,000, and a mandatory one-year license suspension; create a new Class D felony for those with suspended or revoked licenses who use fraudulent plates, punishable by 1-3 years in prison, a fine of at least $1,500, and an extended suspension; and crack down on repeat offenders who obscure their plates with covers; a second violation would mean a $500 minimum fine and a six-month license suspension.