The New York Department of Motor Vehicles suspended a Manhattan lawyer’s driver’s license because his stolen car was uninsured when it was crashed by a thief, he claims.
The DMV then refused to accept proof that the attorney’s car had been wrongly taken, claiming a police report about the theft and his testifying against the thief didn’t prove the crook was acting without his permission, he charges.
Mark Lubelsky reported the May 23, 2019 theft of his 2017 Lexus GS350 from his building’s parking garage to the NYPD, and notified DMV of the theft and loss of his license plates, according to court papers. The theft prompted his insurer, State Farm, to declare the car a total loss.
The thief, Devon Brown Jr., was caught less than a month later, and charged with grand larceny after he allegedly crashed the $52,000 car and led police on a chase in Brooklyn.
DMV notified Lubelsky in writing that his license had been suspended “effective 3/16/2022,”  because his uninsured vehicle had been in an accident, he said in Manhattan Supreme Court papers seeking to overturn the move. The letter was dated Feb. 14, but Lubelsky said he received it just two weeks ahead of the suspension date. The only path to avoid the suspension was to prove his stolen car had been insured when the thief crashed it, Lubelsky contends.
DMV employees allegedly agreed the license suspension was “absurd” but claimed they had no power to fix it, charges Lubelsky, who said in legal papers that Albany DMV workers refused to accept faxed paperwork from their own local office and even demanded he prove the thief “was not authorized to drive the car.”
“After I had explained that I had reported the car stolen, that Devon Brown was arrested for stealing the car, and that I testified against him before the grand jury, the defendant’s representative astoundingly responded that those facts do not prove that I did not authorize Devon Brown to drive the car,” Lubelsky said in court papers.
Lubelsky went to court in a bid to save his license, but withdrew the legal papers after the state Attorney General’s office stepped in and resolved the situation, he said.
“DMV mistakenly revoked my license due to a computer error and there was no way to fix it other than to sue DMV,” Lubelsky told The Post. “I have no idea what I would have done if I wasn’t a lawyer with all the resources of a law firm at my disposal.”
The DMV said Lubelsky’s license was not suspended or revoked, and a spokesman added the department “resolved this misunderstanding before any license sanction was put in place.”