A driving instructor in California has been arrested and fired from his job after allegedly placing a hidden camera inside his vehicle to record himself engaging in inappropriate behavior with his students.
Richard Joseph Banks, 50, had been employed as a driving instructor at the American Driving School in El Cajon, California for over a year before these disturbing actions came to light.
The owner of the school, Daniel Tackett, stated that Banks had previously received positive reviews from parents and even received recommendations from them.
However, last November, Tackett immediately suspended Banks upon receiving reports of him molesting underage female students as young as 15.
The investigation conducted by the San Diego Police Department revealed the shocking details of Banks’ scheme.
Banks secretly installed a recording device within the vehicle used for driving lessons and positioned it to capture intimate areas of his students while he engaged in inappropriate touching.
“The assaults happened during … driving lessons and while the instructor secretly recorded his young victims,” Holden said.
According to current findings, investigators suspect that Banks molested 11 girls between April and November of the previous year. However, they are concerned that there may be additional victims.
If anyone has information regarding these incidents or other allegations against Banks, please reach out to San Diego PD.
Banks was taken into custody last Thursday and is now facing a total of 32 charges.
These include six felonies related to using a minor for creating explicit material, as well as charges of sexual battery and invasion of privacy.
Currently, he is being held without bail at Vista Detention Facility.
An arraignment hearing for his case is scheduled on Tuesday in court.
ADS owner Tackett, who has since fired Banks, called the alleged assaults “devastating.” “We’ve been doing this for a long time and we take it very seriously so when something like this happens, it’s just devastating to us.”
“We were shocked by the allegations against Joe,” Tackett also said. “His actions are his alone, and they violate the trust and policies of our company and those of the DMV regarding inappropriate behavior. He hasn’t taught any students after SDPD notified us of their investigation. We’ve always encouraged parents to ride on the lessons for observation of our teaching methods. As with all DMV licensed instructors, Joe passed a DOJ background check before he was hired.”
Additional information from KFMB reveals that Banks faced charges for multiple offenses in Texas during the 1990s.
Among these charges were commercial burglary, forgery, and evading arrest.
It remains uncertain whether he was ultimately convicted or if these charges were included in the background check conducted by ADS for the Department of Justice.
