Up to 40,000 motorists on our roads are there illegally after paying conmen to take their driving tests for them.

Investigators working for the Driving Standards Agency say every year thousands of dodgy learners get fraudsters to impersonate them because they have no hope of passing a test themselves.

They pay stand-ins, who often use disguises, up to £3,000 a time to take a test for them.

Then they are unleashed on our roads without the necessary skills to cope, putting genuine drivers at risk of injury or even death.

The DSA’s Andy Rice said: “It is enough to make you seriously worried when you drive home at night.

“The law of averages says some of these people will have been involved in serious accidents.

“I work on the assumption that if these people don’t think they have a chance of passing a test their driving must be sub-standard and they could end up killing somebody.”

Police say there is no way of knowing just how many dodgy drivers are out there causing serious accidents because their documents are genuine.

Yesterday two men were jailed at Manchester crown court for taking at least 35 tests for other people.

Ali Abdallah, 29, and Muqtar Nuren, 22, were texted provisional licence details by no-hopers.

Abdallah got three years and his accomplice Nuren got 12 months after admitting plotting fraud.

Nuren was involved in 17 tests and Abdallah took part in 27 tests at centres from Huddersfield to Essex. They passed 10.

BRAZEN

Abdallah had previously impersonated a learner in 2003.

The DSA believes there are impersonators who have each taken tests for hundreds of unskilled drivers.

Since 2004 there have been more than 2,300 reported cases of impersonation including 616 incidents over the last year. But the true figure is feared to be much higher.

Some serial impostors take several tests at the same centre on one day.

The most brazen have taken tests in the morning then changed their clothes and returned in the afternoon posing as new candidates.

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To book a driving lesson in Bedford with a Bedford driving instructor call Txt-Drive driving school on 0800 8600 983 (FREEPHONE) or text DRIVE to 80039 (standard text message rate).

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This entry was posted on Sunday, January 3rd, 2010 at 12:17 am and is filed under Bedford, Driving, Driving Lessons, Driving Tests, Road Safety, Txt-Drive. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.