Another look at the auto tag agency story...

Before we go deeper into the Airways Auto Tag Agency story that we first mentioned earlier this month, let's try to get a basic understanding of what the case is about.  The allegations are as follows...


Customer comes into the tag agency and for the sake of our argument, purchases a new license plate for their car and pays the sales tax on their newly acquired vehicle.  To make things easy, let's say that the entire transaction costs a total of $1,000.


At this point the teller at the tag agency takes the $1,000 from the customer, which by the way is almost always cash or a company check assuming it was coming from one of the dealers that the tag agency works with, prints out the required paperwork and receipts from the state computer system, hands the customer a license plate as well as a new vehicle registration and decal.  So far so good right?


According to the police, at some point in the day, the tellers that were charged pocket the money then go and void out the transactions on the tag agencies internal accounting system therefore according to the arrest affidavit shorting the tag agencies proceeds to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (aka DHSMV) which regulates the tag agencies.  


Simple enough right?  You come in, pay your money, pick up your tag, registration, title, etc, the teller does all the required paperwork on the state and the tag agencies internal computer system then at some point after you leave, the tellers would void the transactions on the agency's internal system, pocket the money which would therefore leave a shortage with the state at the end of the day.


Real simple right?  Let's now take a look at a specific day that the police allege that one of these dirty tellers pulled this scheme, specifically, December 18, 2010.  From the arrest affidavit...

Ok, so according to the arrest affidavit, on December 18, 2010 this teller processed six transactions totaling $8,175.90 and then two days later said teller voided these transactions and at some point between these two days the defendant pocketed a little over $8,000.  Now to fully understand these allegations, lets take another look at the tag agency where all this was alleged to have occurred...

What you can't see from this photo is that the place is only about ten feet deep and has three tellers.  Now, take into account that the business is highly regulated by the state and there is a strict inventory of license plates, blank titles, blank registrations, etc.  You start off the day with a certain inventory of items and you finish the day with all those items as well as the money in your drawer fully accounted for.  Also take into consideration that large dealer transactions like the ones that occurred on December 18, 2010 are invariably paid for with a check from the dealership.  Now, tell me how anyone with a modicum of common sense could believe that there could possibly have been $8,000 in cash missing from this tiny tag agency in one day without anyone above the tellers knowing about it?  

Anyone with an once of reason in their head would be confounded by these allegations, that is, anyone but our favorite MDPD Detective, Jorge Baluja...

Tomorrow we'll propose what our theory of this case is and see what you think.