A 74-year-old chiropractor from Albuquerque, New Mexico is accused of going to Albuquerque-area truck stops and issuing forged medical cards to truck drivers, the New Mexico State Police said.
KOAT News reports that the chiropractor, Paul Bateman, also issued the fraudulent cards from his place of business.
Bateman is a former chiropractor who is no longer a licensed practitioner with the state of New Mexico.
According to KOB News, Bateman performed “very basic physicals” on the drivers before issuing the medical cards.
“According to the complaint, the New Mexico State Police began investigating Bateman after numerous drivers stated that their CDL’s were disqualified when their medical cards came back as invalid,” KOAT reported.
State Police conducted an investigation and found that the examiner’s certificate numbers on the cards were fraudulent.
Bateman is accused of issuing 609 fraudulent medical cards and now faces 609 counts of forgery and three counts of fraud.
State Police say that drivers who paid for the fraudulent cards have had their CDLs suspended and will have to re-apply for their licenses and will have to undergo a medical examination from a practitioner on the FMCSA’s examiner registry.
Sources:
KOAT
KOB