A DRIVING instructor has been detained in police custody on suspicion of forging medical certificates for lorry drivers.
Police yesterday said the 41-year-old man from Strovolos was under investigation for forgery, circulating forged documents, attempting to obtain a document under false pretences, illegal possession of an instrument used to create stamps and violating vehicle laws.
Suspicions were aroused when an official of the Transport Department noticed around 20 licence applications for permits to drive lorries over seven and a half tons or buses.
The applications were accompanied by medical certificates baring the signature of a doctor who had allegedly given the applicants the necessary medical inspection.
But the transport officer was baffled by what appeared to be a scanned signature of the doctor and a stamp mark that was over it.
“The doctor was questioned, but he told us that he had not signed for those applicants in question, that he was abroad when some of the certificates were signed and that he never scans his signature anyway,” CID Constable Thanos Kareklas.
Statements were later taken by some of the applicants, who told investigators that they had never visited the doctor, while others said they didn’t even know that they were subject to a medical examination.
“But one applicant,” the investigator said, “told us that the suspect had given him a medical certificate signed by the doctor. In his presence, the suspect filled in the details of the applicant before wanting £10. That exact certificate was one of many that were singled out as a forged by the doctor in question.”
The driving instructor was later arrested and taken to Nicosia CID Headquarters for questioning. Upon his arrest, he told officers “I have no idea.”
He then refused to answer any questions from investigators, repeatedly claiming that he did not have anything to do with the documents.
Police later seized a computer and scanner at his home as well as a stamp believed by police to be the one he used over the signature.
A Nicosia judge yesterday remanded the 41-year-old in police custody for four days in light of the preliminary investigation at hand.
