Two years after allegations first surfaced about illegal taxi licenses being issued by Licensing and Consumer Affairs officials, an investigation into the matter is finally starting to bring results.
On Wednesday, enforcement officers from the V.I. Taxicab Commission — in a joint operation between the commission, Bureau of Motor Vehicles and the Justice Department — revoked the licenses of nine taxi operators and summoned a total of 18 to hearings that are scheduled to wrap up Thursday.
"Those individuals, whose taxi operator licenses were revoked, obtained them while a moratorium dated May 19th, 2006, from the Legislature of the Virgin Islands was in effect," a V.I. Taxicab Commission news release explained.
The issue was first raised in 2007 by Sen. Celestino A. White Sr., who said at the time that BMV was also issuing illegal taxi operator badges and identification cards. Several Senate hearings were held to discuss the matter, and White was told by BMV Director Jerris Browne and former DLCA Commissioner Kenrick Robertson that the claims were being investigated.
At a Senate hearing in May 2007, White went through several documents obtained from DLCA that he said revealed some of the illegal licenses were issued even before a complete application had been submitted.
At the 2007 hearing, Browne said that BMV had turned up 18 cases during its investigation, while Robertson cited only one case. At the time, White had given both agencies a month to wrap up their investigations.
But the work has continued, and will continue, according to the V.I. Taxicab Commission release, which also said the commission, BMV and Justice will "take whatever actions are necessary" against taxi operators with illegal licenses.
