In 2004, Christopher Alblas presented an Alberta driver's licence when applying for a licence in BC. After a series of checks and reviews aimed at protecting the security of B.C.'s Driver Licensing system, the Customer Service representative contacted her Alberta Counterpart and determined the licence provided by Alblas was a fake. ICBC's Special Investigations Unit took over and tracked Alblas through several aliases to learn his real identity.

Alblas was charged in 2006 with two counts of impersonation, one count of fraud and one of uttering a forged document for using a fake identity to file a claim with ICBC. At trial he pleaded guilty to fraud and uttering a forged document, and was sentenced in September of this year to six months in jail. Alblas was also ordered to repay ICBC $5,091 for the claim paid out.

Fred Hess, ICBC's Vice President of Driver Licensing, notes the fraud perpetrated in the above case is now much harder, thanks to the use of facial recognition technology for B.C. driver's licences and identification cards.

He said that facial recognition technology allows ICBC to compare the driver's image with the entire driver image database, thereby reducing fraud and identity theft by ensuring cards are not issued to multiple identities.