Duke research technician charged in fake ID bust

Raleigh, N.C. — A Duke University employee is accused of making fake driver’s licenses and selling them to college students.

Robert Wayne Bullock, 23, is charged with six counts of selling fake IDs in Wake County and one count of possession of stolen property in Orange County.

A few months ago, authorities said they began confiscating a lot of fake IDs in Raleigh clubs and bars. An investigation of those IDs led authorities to Bullock.

Authorities said Bullock, of 2721 Walker Road, Hillsborough, was using a stolen Division of Motor Vehicles computer to make the IDs. The machine was stolen from the agency's Louisburg office in September 2006.

Bullock sold the fake IDs for as much as $150 to students at North Carolina State University.

East Village Bar and Grill, on the corner of Hillsborough Street and Dixie Trail, is a popular hangout for students. The bar often confiscates fake IDs from students.

“If it’s a real ID, it has all the holograms on it,” said Wes Noblett, with East Village Bar and Grill.

Noblett said he was glad to hear of the fake ID bust.

"We are really liable for stuff like that. If they do get in here and start getting served and kill someone and somebody else,” Noblett said.

Bullock is employed as a scientist at Duke University and is a North Carolina State University graduate. Duke lists him as a research technician working on drug delivery in the Pratt Engineering School's Cartilage Mechanics and Tissue Engineering Laboratory.

He was released Tuesday afternoon from the Wake County Jail on a $5,000 bond.

Authorities said they are in the process of searching Bullock's computer to determine whether other people were involved in the operation.  If so, more arrests are expected.

A representative with the North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission said this is the largest driver’s license fraud case he has seen in 20 years.