More Than 60 Tax-Exempt Gas Violators Found In 5 Hours

Augusta, GA—Richmond County Deputy: “How we doing sir?”

Car after car, and truck after truck, were stopped along Dixon Airline Road and Doug Barnard Parkway, Wednesday afternoon.

Sgt. Pete Lamb, Richmond County HEAT Division: “The State Department of Revenue is looking for folks who are avoiding some fuel tax. So, they’re checking those vehicles, mostly diesel vehicles to see what kind of fuel they’re running.”

Sergeant Pete Lamb, with Richmond County’s HEAT division, says 2 drivers were caught using tax exempt fuel, and will be fined 2,000. But, that was just the start of what they found during their more than 5 hour search.

Sgt. Lamb: “We recovered one stolen vehicle and made a felony drug case out there. We’ve got a couple of people that had some fake Mexican driver’s licenses, a couple of folks with no licenses at all.  Lots of suspended license cases, we’ve run across a number of those.”

This was the result of one woman with a suspended license. The officer was only planning on giving her a citation.
Sgt. Lamb: “When he informed her of this, she told him that she wasn’t going to take a suspended license ticket and took off.”

The high speed chase ended when she flipped her car. Thankfully, no serious injuries were reported. This accident, a grim reminder, of the many illegal drivers on the road, and the importance of having check points like these.

Sgt. Lamb: “It keeps folks on their toes. It lets folks know that we’re subject to pop up anywhere, so it’s best that they’re in compliance.”

Thursday, the State Department of Revenue had speed checks set up in McDuffie County.