An employee of the state Office of Motor Vehicles has been arrested and accused of stealing MVI stickers.
Heidie Romero, 33, of Kaplan, was booked into the Lafayette Parish Correctional Center on August 27 with malfeasance in office, forgery and filing or maintaining false public records.
According to documents we received following a public records request to State Police, she’s accused of stealing inspection stickers and providing them to a friend who owns a tint shop. She worked in the Abbeville OMV office.
The alleged theft and filing of false records began in October 2017, the report states.
State Police were called by the Office of Motor Vehicles back in July to investigate, the records state.
Another OMV employee, this one in Baton Rouge, was arrested today, State Police say.
According to a press release from LSP, Dequsha Ingram, 25, of Sunshine was arrested and booked with felony theft, injuring public records and computer fraud.
That investigation began an OMV supervisor was made aware of possible fraudulent transactions by an employee at the Independence Boulevard location in Baton Rouge. LSP Detectives were contacted by the OMV supervisor to conduct an investigation regarding the alleged theft by one of their employees.
Detectives say Ingram was overcharging customers for various transactions from December 2017 through September 2018. Detectives questioned Ingram regarding these transactions and she allegedly admitted to the thefts.
Ingram was booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison.
Commissioner Karen St. Germain said neither of the women work for the OMV now.
“They’re both definitely no longer employed with the department,” she tells KATC.
Both cases involved OMV employees calling in State Police to investigate.
“Out of 503 employees, we’re very grateful for a lot of good ones,” she said.
All victims of Ingram’s will be contacted by the department to arrange for refunds of any excess charges, she said.
