Peoria MVD provider accused of altering titles to secure personal loans

The owner of a business used by the state Motor Vehicle Division to provide services has been charged with placing her name on the titles of expensive cars owned by others in order to help secure loans, state officials said.

Tamica Goree, 44, owner of Motor Vehicle Southwest in Peoria, was arrested after investigators for the Arizona Department of Transportation discovered irregularities in the company’s record-keeping, ADOT officials said in a news release on Thursday. The MVD is a division of ADOT.

The investigation found Goree added her name to the title of a 2011 Maserati sedan owned by someone else and then removed the lien holder from the title, ADOT said.

She then used the vehicle as collateral to obtain multiple bank loans, ADOT said. She also used Motor Vehicle Division databases to receive loans on a newer model Porsche, ADOT said.

MVD officials took steps to shut down the business and suspend Goree as a processor, officials said.

Goree was indicted by a state grand jury on four counts of fraudulent schemes and artifices, all felonies. ADOT detectives arrested Goree and booked her into the Maricopa County Fourth Avenue Jail on Sept. 6.

Motor Vehicle Southwest was a private business used by the MVD to provide many of the same services offered at state-run MVD locations.

“While we work with private businesses to give customers more options for MVD services, we also monitor these operations closely to protect customers and their information,” MVD Director Eric Jorgensen said in a prepared statement.

ADOT said anyone seeking to work as a third-party provider for the MVD must pass background checks and complete extensive training. ADOT oversees and monitors the businesses once they are retained.

Driver carjacked at gunpoint in Starbucks lot

Plane makes emergency landing in desert area

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Peoria MVD provider accused of altering titles to secure loans