License plate agency management: No warning before DMV closed us down

The agency, at 1100 New Bern Ave., was closed following the results of audits by DMV management that found it was not correctly following standard operating procedure, which resulted in accounting errors and other discrepancies. The DMV closed the office and canceled its contract.

DMV officials on Friday said there were discrepancies in a few areas, and the contractor running the agency had been warned several times before state officials came in.

According to Rudolph Morton, the contractor's husband, he and his wife were not given fair warnings of the closure.

"I think the most devastating thing is the state came in this morning without notice or anything and said that you're not going to open," Morton said. "You have your employees coming to work, they were given no notice that we would be closing or anything."

Morton said there has been no communication or consistency from the DMV.

"Every time that we've reached out to the DOT or DMV for healp, we never got it right then," he said.

John Brockwell, a DMV spokesperson, said the last warning letter was issued on June 30.

"This particular license plate agency was given the opportunity to correct all of that," he said. "Apparently, those were not met and so the office was shut down this morning."

The New Bern Avenue location has operated since May 2016. DMV officials will perform a final inventory audit of the agency and remove equipment that belongs to the state.

Officials said the office will reopen on Monday at 8 a.m. and be staffed by DMV employees.

Nearby license plate agencies offering vehicle registration services are in Raleigh at 2533 Atlantic Ave., Suite 102, (919) 831-9996, in Cary at 1251 Buck Jones Road, (919) 469-1444, and in Holly Springs at 408 Village Walk Dr., (919) 552-5449. The locations are open Monday through Friday.