Dennis Dean Sieving, our Shmuck of the Week, is driving us crazy

Driving in Denver gets more difficult every day.

If it’s not the construction and repair, then it’s the badly synchronized lights or rush-hour traffic. If it’s not the sneaky radar vans, then it’s the real trouble-makers who weave in and out of lanes at twice the speed of everyone else.

So why would anyone want to make it worse?

That’s a good question for Dennis Dean Sieving, who was indicted earlier this week on federal charges that he was signing off on state driving tests in exchange for payment.

The 53-year-old Sieving, an instructor for the American Driving Academy in Arvada, is accused of taking $50 each from people who wanted him to certify that they had passed written or driving-skills tests — even if they hadn’t passed or hadn’t taken the test at all.

Many of them were immigrants from Southeast Asia who didn’t speak English, according to news reports on the indictment.

The Colorado Department of Revenue last month revoked the licenses that these people received — more than 1,500 of them — based on the tests.

Here’s hoping those people will have a chance to truly earn their licenses and learn the real rules of the road. Rules that could land Sieving in prison for up to ten years.

More from our Shmuck archive: “To protect and swerve: a drag-racing Aurora cop.“