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Photo by Nancy Lane
Transit police Lt. Joseph O’Connor holds up a picture of a fake T pass and a real ‘Blind Access’ card as officials investigate the selling of fake passes for vision-impaired or elderly riders.

A former MBTA employee is facing charges that he sold dozens of counterfeit free or discount passes meant for elderly and blind people to riders looking to cheat the system, officials said.
Giovanni Francis, 19, of Hyde Park is being charged in the wide-ranging scam that transit investigators are still probing.
T officials said Francis, a former sales associate for the agency, illegally fabricated at least 90 blind access passes that allow vision-impaired people to travel for free.
The passes, which have a potential value of $250 per month, are good for five years, meaning they each hold thousands of dollars in free rides. An investigation by T police caught several riders with normal vision using passes that were allegedly traced back to Francis.
“I can think of nothing more despicable than somebody who is stealing from fare payers by creating false ID cards that are meant to help people who are disabled,” T General Manager Daniel Grabauskas said. “It’s about as low as you can get.”
T officials said the phony cards have been deactivated, but they are using electronic records to trace people who try to use them.
About 4,800 legitimate blind access passes are in use by people who had to show documentation of their disability to qualify.
Francis, who left the agency in September, also is accused of selling discount elderly passes on Craigslist.com, a classifieds site. He faces charges of larceny by scheme and receiving stolen property, but could face additional counts as the investigation unfolds.
He could not be reached for comment yesterday.
T officials said the investigation began after a transit police officer noticed a woman with normal vision using a blind access pass at a downtown subway station. They said the woman explained that she bought the pass from a man on Chauncy Street in Boston, which is near the T’s Downtown Crossing sales office.
Police retrieved records showing that 90 passes were fabricated in that office in mid-July, complete with phony names attached. Officials said the passes were generated before working hours, when only Francis and a few others had access.
Electronic fare records revealed that people began using the passes about 10 days later, and police used closed-circuit cameras to capture images of people walking through fare gates with the passes in hand, sometimes smiling broadly as they went. Investigators are tracking those people to shed more light on the scam.

http://bostonherald.com/news/regiona...icleid=1043353

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