Huge driving test scam uncovered

[Robot Chicken]

Good lord...

Tens of thousands of people are paying fraudsters to sit their driving test for them, the BBC has learned.

The Driving Standards Agency (DSA) says impostors charge up to £500 and can have taken more than 200 tests each.

The scam works when the fraudsters pass themselves off as the person in the photo on the provisional licence that candidates must bring to their test.

The DSA described the problem, the scale of which has only recently become clear, as serious.

Difficult to spot
The head of the DSA's fraud team, Andy Rice, said: "It is quite common for them to do over 100, sometimes over 200 tests, before we're in a position to arrest them. We're into the tens of thousands." Many of the fraudsters have sat tests at different driving centres around the country.

If they pass the test, the person paying them is granted a full licence - despite having never sat a practical road examination.

Ashley Bateman, a driving examiner in Nottingham, explained that it could be difficult to spot those trying to cheat the system.

"If their face looked the same shape and they had the same colour eyes and things like that, there is a chance then that it would be difficult for the examiner to identify there's a problem," he said.

The AA's head of road safety, Andrew Howard, said he was shocked at the size of the problem and he believed it could be related to the increasing difficulty of the driving test.

"As the tests get harder to make the roads safer, more and more people will do whatever it takes to get around the hard exam," he said.

He also pointed out that drivers who had not passed a test were up to nine times more likely to have an accident, and it was more likely to be a serious one.

Lethal drivers
Shadow Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said: "This is yet more evidence that there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of rogue drivers on our roads without tax or insurance and now, it appears, often without a legal driving licence.

"This is a huge road safety challenge and we clearly need urgent action to tackle the problem."

There are already cases of alleged falsehoods reaching the courts.
On Monday, two men from Oldham, Greater Manchester, were convicted of obtaining driving licences by deception.

Shazad Akhtar, 34, of Bolton Street, was sentenced to 200 hours of community service and ordered to pay £500 costs after pleading guilty to 22 counts of obtaining and attempting to obtain driving licences by deception.

Mushtaq Ahmed, 37, of Roundthorn Road, was fined £200 for obtaining a driving licence by deception.

The DSA, which gathers evidence before handing it on to police, has run 1,200 investigations into the activity so far.

The fear is that the figures are the tip of the iceberg and that there are many more untested and potentially lethal drivers on the roads.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6231892.stm

 

[Barrel of Fun]

:mushy:

This sort of thing can only strengthen the ID card or fingerprinting...?

 

[HampshireSeagulls]

What they also fail to mention is that this fraud is prevalent among Asians, Middle Easterns and Indians. Unfortunately, it really is because a lot of them look the same, and the driving instructors find it hard to distinguish between them.

Of course, when the women turn up with pillowcases over their heads, it makes it damn near impossible.

 

[Clothes Peg]

:mushy:

This sort of thing can only strengthen the ID card or fingerprinting...?

Exactly what I was thinking. But people would only moan something about the government invading privacy blah blah blah.

I have always thought that new drivers should do a second test two years on just to make sure that they've polished up their driving and are confident, safe and experienced.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Why don't they just make you produce your passport as proof of identity? Or your driving licence...

 

[TonyW]

Good lord...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6231892.stm

It might help if they actually handed out some sort of decent punishment.

A year or two in prison might put the bastards off doing again.

 

[Robot Chicken]

Nice way of earning £100,000, tax free too!

 

[The Clown of Pevensey Bay]

The only ID I provided to get my a provisional licence was my NUS card from sixth form college. I could have bought one of those for about a fiver.

 

[Hoggy]

Of course, when the women turn up with pillowcases over their heads, it makes it damn near impossible.

Racist

 

[Gully]

I don't remember providing any form of identity, other than my provisional licence, when I took my test...though I did give a tip to the bloke with the red flag.

 

[mona]

:mushy:

This sort of thing can only strengthen the ID card or fingerprinting...?

I'm all for ID cards simply because the idea of them gets Norman Baker, Shami Chakhrabhati and all the other civil liberties onanists foaming at the mouth.

 

[sten]

What they also fail to mention is that this fraud is prevalent among Asians, Middle Easterns and Indians. Unfortunately, it really is because a lot of them look the same, and the driving instructors find it hard to distinguish between them.

Of course, when the women turn up with pillowcases over their heads, it makes it damn near impossible.

Spot on but no-one dares to say that this is the case for fear of being branded.

 

[surrey jim]

hypothetically if i passed the driving test in India/China would it be valid here aswell

 

[Springal]

hypothetically if i passed the driving test in India/China would it be valid here aswell

no, same as american etc

 

[Lord Bracknell]

hypothetically if i passed the driving test in India/China would it be valid here aswell

If you are a RESIDENT of Great Britain, your driving licence is fully recognised if it was issued in one of the following countries:-
Northern Ireland, European Community/European Economic Area EC/EEA, Gibraltar, Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Australia, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Falkland Islands, Faroe Islands, Hong Kong, Japan, Monaco, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland and Zimbabwe.

If your driving licence was issued by any other country:-
+ you can drive in Great Britain (GB) on your full, valid driving licence for up to 12 months from the time you first became resident
+ you will need to stop driving once the 12 months are over
+ you will not be able to exchange your licence for a GB licence
+ if you wish to continue driving in GB you will need to get a GB provisional driving licence and sit a theory and practical driving test


VISITORS to Great Britain have different rules:-

+ you can drive any small vehicle eg cars and or motorcycles, shown on your driving licence, for a period of 12 months from the date that you last entered the country, as long as it remains full and valid
+ you can only drive larger vehicles eg lorries and buses, shown on your licence, that have been registered outside of GB which you have driven into the country

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

My sister-in-law took her driving test in the Shetlands where there were no roundabouts. Not many other cars either, come to think of it. Fair freaked her out when she moved to Aberdeen

 

[HampshireSeagulls]

Racist

But true. A friend of mine is a DofT examiner. He has been threatened by male relatives of "females" who are taking their driving test for asking to see ID that shows their whole face. He has also had "ladies" who wear gloves during the test and do not speak at all - he strongly suspects that some of these people are in fact male! He has mentioned this to the head examiner, but in effect has been told that it would not be wise to flag this up as it would open a can of racist worms. The male relatives also demand to sit in the car and talk constantly to the examinee in their own language. One of the DofT guys around here speaks fluent Farsi, and during a test spoke in their language to ask the bloke in the back to stop giving the lady guidance for her test as it was illegal!

Wearing a burqa for religious reasons is fine, but when it impedes the laws of the country in which you are living, your religion has to take second place. This is becoming more enforceable now (at last) and people who claim "racism" are being told in the courts to get a life and conform. I should also like to point out that this applies both ways, and what applies to one should apply to all.

 

[sten]

Racist

what an idiotic reply

 

[mona]

But true. A friend of mine is a DofT examiner. He has been threatened by male relatives of "females" who are taking their driving test for asking to see ID that shows their whole face. He has also had "ladies" who wear gloves during the test and do not speak at all - he strongly suspects that some of these people are in fact male! He has mentioned this to the head examiner, but in effect has been told that it would not be wise to flag this up as it would open a can of racist worms. The male relatives also demand to sit in the car and talk constantly to the examinee in their own language. One of the DofT guys around here speaks fluent Farsi, and during a test spoke in their language to ask the bloke in the back to stop giving the lady guidance for her test as it was illegal!

Wearing a burqa for religious reasons is fine, but when it impedes the laws of the country in which you are living, your religion has to take second place. This is becoming more enforceable now (at last) and people who claim "racism" are being told in the courts to get a life and conform. I should also like to point out that this applies both ways, and what applies to one should apply to all.

The high income-earning liberals really don't want to hear stories like this or the little detail that a driving licence can easily be obtained with a small bribe in many third world countries.

 

[HampshireSeagulls]

The high income-earning liberals really don't want to hear stories like this or the little detail that a driving licence can easily be obtained with a small bribe in many third world countries.

Actually, I have bought driving licences in lots of countries! When required to drive official vehicles that were sourced from civilian companies or local military/police units, we got sent off to a "driving acquaint" - with about a tenner of local currency in our pockets to buy the driving licence. On Montserrat the local police Sgt made four of us cough up £20 each to buy a local driving permit, without realising we had been sent there by the new Police Inspector to do some driving work for him! When we told the bloke, he went apopleptic and shot off to the police station to get our money back!

That was a freaky island - we had to "liberate" the contents of the police armoury after the volcanic eruptions. I have never seen so many weapons in such a small space - they could have started a medium war! They were not sure where the stuff had all come from, or even if it all worked (we checked, most of it did!), but it actually transpired that whilst the walls and doors of the building were heavily reinforced, the roof was made of lift-off tiles! We were ready to blow the front doors off with some acquired modified "charges" from the local quarry when someone mentioned that we should check the roof....

We had a detachement of 3 Para with us at the time - their eyes glazed over and they started dribbling (well, more than usual). I have never seen four blokes so ridiculously excited. We had an exceptional dog-culling session that day...