BROCKTON — Neta Centio, 56, of Taunton, was sentenced to prison for bribing a road test examiner at the Brockton Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) into issuing driver’s licenses to individuals who did not take the mandatory road test, Acting Massachusetts District Attorney Joshua Levy announced in a press release on Thursday.
A U.S. District Court judge sentenced Centio on Wednesday, Jan. 17 to 15 months in prison, one year of supervised release, a fine of $10,000, and forfeiture of $19,305, according to Levy.
In August of 2023, Centio plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit honest services mail fraud.
Centio paid over 40 individual bribes to an unidentified co-conspirator, using CashApp in exchange for giving fraudulent passing scores on road tests, Levy said. As a result, the RMV mailed driver’s licenses to unqualified applicants, some of whom never even showed up for the test.
It is unclear how many unqualified applicants received valid Massachusetts driver’s licenses.
Last year, the former manager of the Brockton RMV, Mia Cox-Johnson, 44, was accused of accepting bribes to give customers passing scores on their multiple-choice learner’s permit test between 2018 and 2019.
How she did it: Former Brockton RMV manager sentenced for taking money to falsely pass tests
The U.S. district attorney’s office has not officially named Cox-Johnson as Centio’s co-conspirator.
Last March, Cox-Johnson pleaded guilty to two counts of extortion and one count of conspiring to commit extortion, the U.S. district attorney’s office said in a press release.
Five months later, Cox-Johnson was sentenced to four months of prison, one year of probation, with the first six months to be served under home confinement, and a $5,500 fine.
