> This wouldn't be 100% perfect -- maybe a really determined ID thief could get the DMV to issue them an ID in someone else's name
This is much more common than you might think. I believe in Illinois there was some sort of ongoing problem with people at the DMV selling licenses to truckers who didn't actually pass their tests[0]. I'm sure any criminal with a wad of cash could get them to make a fake ID.
This is true, but I think there's an important distinction.
Driving a truck is generally legal. Stealing somebody's life savings generally isn't.
This matters because once an underqualified truck driver is on the road, they're going to be hard to distinguish from a normal truck driver. You have to issue a lot of licenses before the pattern of fake licenses becomes obvious enough to trigger an investigation.
Granting fake licenses for serious theft, though, is another matter. Every single one of those will trigger a police investigation. It's much higher risk, meaning it'd be very hard to sustain an ongoing business in fake licenses for theft.
This is much more common than you might think. I believe in Illinois there was some sort of ongoing problem with people at the DMV selling licenses to truckers who didn't actually pass their tests[0]. I'm sure any criminal with a wad of cash could get them to make a fake ID.
[0]: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-991009license-story.h...