New CDL - BackGround Checks - ExPat - Minimal US Work History

Back in '93 I received a felony conviction for Possession of Stolen Property (Didn't return a Rental Car). The rental car company reported the car stolen after I'd called in for an extension and I was arrested while driving it. Upon investigation, the rental company noticed in their notes that a request for extension had been made, but after not being able to get in touch with me regarding a credit card decline, they reported it as stolen. I was 20 years old at the time and was scared to be in jail and agreed to plead guilty to the charge to get out off jail. As the case made it's way through the courts, the Rental company refused to cooperate, therefore the state charge as amended from Vehicle theft to Possession of stolen property. I had no other criminal record at the time outside of Driving on suspended license misdemeanors. I was sentenced to 2 years unsupervised probation with no jail time.

My drivers license was suspended in 1991 due to failure to appear in court for a 3 separate speeding tickets. I obtained a new drivers license in a separate name. It was that license that I was driving on when I was arrested in the above case. The case was prosecuted in that name. Since I had no prior criminal history that required being fingerprinted at that point, the only criminal record entries for me in NCIC are held in that name.

In 1996, I met and married a woman from another country and moved to that country. In 2005, I did something stupid and committed another crime that was classed a "Wobbler" (one which could be charged as either a misdemeanor or felony.) The crime was for internet fraud, and because the company was based in the US, the case was filed in the US, even though I wasn't living here at the time. I eventually returned to the US to face the charges once I became aware of them. I had a pretrial interview and reported to the Sheriffs for an official booking. Since I knew that a record of arrest existed under my "Alias", that's the name I used when I was fingerprinted. I was honest about my prior conviction in 1993, only thing was, the court could not find a record of it during pretrail. I later came to find out that the state which the 1993 felony occurred in automatically seals records after 10 years if no other crimes are reported on an individual in that state. Nearing the end of the court process, I was offered a sentence of Work release in lieu of a jail sentence. Long story short (yeah, I know - this is a long story, lol) I was unable to find employment in a timely manner and was afraid that the work release offer might be rescinded when I notified the court. I did the irresponsible thing and said screw it and just returned to the country I'd been living in. A bench warrant was issued for my arrest and still remains to this day.

In 2014, my wife died and I decided to return to the US. I've been investigating getting into trucking and have read extensively about those with criminal histories. Based on the above and following, My questions are as follows:

1) In my birth name, I've no criminal history attached to it outside of misdemeanor failures to appear back in the late 80's and early 90's.
2) I clearly won't be applying for a hazmat endorsement, nor to a company that fingerprints, since as of today there is to correlation between my two names and if fingerprinted, I'd be creating a link (one which I don't care to for obvious reasons)
3) Outside of the case in 2004, I've not used that alias in any capacity and have no other past criminal encumberances.
4) My plan is to self fund CDL training and then apply to one of the carriers.

I worry that companies that usually don't require fingerprinting for their background checks might desire to do so with me since I've no work history in the US from 1996-2015, and the couple background reports that have been don on me in the last 2 years has raised concerns with other employer since I'm 49yo with reports that come back pretty much blank. No criminal history. No credit history, No address history. etc, since I've lived most of that time outside this country. My first drivers license was issued in 1984, so I show a driving history to that point, but since I've been absent, no tickets or anything on my driving record since 1993.

I'd truly appreciate feedback re my chances of being accepted at a Carrier and my best course of action. I think it best to take the route of just shut up. But I do worry about the lack of verifiable work history along with all the above making me unhireable in the highly regulated trucking industry.

Thanx for your time...

 

Thanx for your reply,

Just to clarify, I used an Alias from '91 to ''93 for the purposes of driving (a boneheaded solution at the time). I was arrested in '93 while driving on that license. I'd never been arrested prior to that, so had never been fingerprinted in my birth name. That alias was a legitimate DMV drivers license, and as far as law enforcement was concerned, was my true name. I was prosecuted and convicted under that name. I've never been arrested, nor fingerprinted, in my birth name before, nor since. If I were to be arrested for something today, then the records would become synced since my fingerprints are on record, but not currently attached to my birth name.

I've had two background checks performed in the past 2 years prior to being hired and both times HR questioned me about why they were essentially blank, which was remedied by me explaining that I've lived outside the country for more than 2 decades. But neither of those jobs was in an industry as regulated as the trucking industry, so the explanation sufficed and required no further inquiry. I'm able to easily supply two decades worth of proof of income through my IRS returns. But it's definitely worth investigating how foreign born drivers have overcome this obstacle.

Thanx for you reply!

 

Thanx for your frank reply. I am truly seeking real world information from those with actual experience, as opposed to mere conceptions like a newb like me. Possesses. You are correct that the story was incomplete as I was hoping to just provide a basic outline of events in hopes of not having the event become the primary focus as opposed to the overall reason for the questions.

Thankfully you've touched on a significant topic which had not crossed my mind to date. No matter how successful I might be in handling the things which are under my control, it's impossible to predict, nor avoid, those things out of my control. Something like a load hijacking never even crossed my mind, and you are correct - an insurance company investigation would no doubt be exhaustive. Just the thought of that alone is enough to shoot down the dream.

I sincerely appreciate your candor and guidance. Thanks for taking the time to respond and share.