Fake Driver’s Licenses Lead to Arrest of Teen : Police Suspect High School Senior of Running $1,000-a-Week Business Providing Phony IDs

An 18-year-old high school senior from Irvine has been arrested on suspicion of operating a $1,000-a-week business of doctoring driver’s licenses, usually to change birth dates, Irvine police said Wednesday.

Police estimated that Paul Howard Schwartz had manufactured 250 licenses, mainly for teen-agers in Orange and Los Angeles counties, since January.

Police said Schwartz altered driver’s licenses to specifications.

“In our undercover operation, we ordered six new IDs from him, telling him that they were for a criminal who needed new identification, and he made them for us,” Sgt. Leo Jones said.

Police on Tuesday arrested Schwartz, a University High School senior, on suspicion of counterfeiting state documents, a felony. He was released on his own recognizance to his parents, Jones said.

Schwartz said Wednesday night: “From what I hear, the police’s press release about this is pretty inflated, but I really don’t care to comment.”

The officer said police found more than 100 valid California licenses in Schwartz’s home on Aspen Tree Lane. The licenses were in various stages of being altered, Jones said.

The youth faces more than 100 felony charges--one charge “for each fictitious license produced,” Jones said. State law provides for up to a year in prison for each conviction of a charge of “counterfeit of a state seal.”

Jones said the evidence found by police indicated that Schwartz had altered up to 250 licenses since January. Many of those licenses apparently are still being carried by the teen-agers who ordered them, he said. Those people also may face prosecution, Jones said.

“We are contacting the Orange County district attorney’s office to seek conspiracy charges against the juveniles who were purchasing fraudulent licenses from Mr. Schwartz by providing their valid California driver’s licenses,” Jones said. Conspiracy to counterfeit carries a sentence of up to a year in prison.

The state Department of Motor Vehicles also may take action in the case, Jones said. Irvine police have notified state DMV officials, he said, “and they are considering revoking or suspending all licenses involved.”

Jones said Schwartz charged $60 per license.

“It is estimated that Mr. Schwartz was making approximately $1,000 in profits per week from this activity,” he said.

Police “first became aware that something was going on” because Irvine officers “were discovering a number of juveniles had fraudulent California licenses when we stopped them for traffic violations,” Jones said. “We knew there was some sort of a ‘paper mill’ in this area pushing these things out, and ultimately we found an informer who put us in contact with the suspect.”

Jones said Irvine police used an undercover narcotics officer to make contact with the suspect. “No narcotics were involved, it was just because a narcotics officer could go under cover more quickly,” Jones said.

In addition to more than 100 actual driver’s licenses seized from Schwartz’s home, police said they found two rolls of film containing 72 negatives of driver’s licenses to be altered. Officers also found a state Department of Motor Vehicles rubber stamp and three DMV organ-donor cards, Jones said. He added that police believe that Schwartz attached organ-donor cards to some of the fake licenses to make them look more authentic.

Jones said Schwartz altered legitimate licenses by putting on a fake overlay and photographing it. The photography work was done at a commercial studio in Irvine, where a friend of Schwartz works, Jones said. He said that it is not clear if the unidentified friend knew what Schwartz allegedly was doing. Jones said police have already determined that the photo company, which was not identified, knew nothing of the license-altering scheme.