Driving Test Fraud Among Young Drivers

Learner drivers are trying to cheat the system by hiring impersonators to sit their test for them.

In what has been described as an ‘uncommon’, but still bizarre, practice, young drivers are hiring lookalikes to sit portions of their test on their behalf, rendering the real licence holder effectively unqualified and unsafe to drive.

Figures obtained by The Times have shown that nearly 700 cases of driving test fraud have been investigated since April 2014, with 188 individuals arrested and a further 55 convicted.  All in all, 97 ‘qualified’ drivers lost their licences.

The numbers aren’t quite as high as in the 2011/2012 financial year when 816 so called ‘impersonation investigations’ were undertaken. With three months left of the current period however, that figure could still be beaten.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has been keen to point out that such cases are still rare, taking care to stress that they have stringent procedures to weed out would-be offenders.

Alastair Peoples, chief executive of the DVSA, said such criminal activity "puts innocent road users at risk".

He said: "We have stringent measures in place to detect fraudulent activity and work closely with the police to bring all offenders to justice."

The BSM driving school said the fraudsters were also putting themselves in danger, with BSM head Mark Peacock adding: "The process of learning to drive and taking the test can seem a lot to take on, but it is nothing compared to someone faking a test pass and then attempting to teach themselves once they have passed their test. The test is there for a reason."

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