Thousands of learner drivers cheat system paying £3k to stooges to sit tests for them

LEARNER drivers are paying up to £3,000 for crooks to step in and take their road test for them.

Figures obtained by The Sun on Sunday show 3,679 have been caught trying the con since 2021.

And scammers are still using a huge number of profiles on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook to offer the “no-test” full UK driving licences.

Wannabe motorists have been quoted up to £1,500 for someone to take their theory test, which costs £23.

The price doubles for the £62 practical test — with a competent stand-in with a passing resemblance to the named driver getting behind the wheel instead.

Responding to an ad on TikTok, our team was offered a stooge with no questions asked for £600.

We were told via WhatsApp that our new driving licence would be validated on the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) system within two days.

The scammer admitted to us they had pulled the stunt on behalf of “more than 300 people” — suggesting they could have earned more than £180,000 from doing it.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) caught 1,653 impersonators in theory and practical tests last year, with 697 more logged in 2023.

Last month, Singh Satwinder, 34, from Swansea, was jailed for a year for sitting at least 36 theory tests for non-English speakers across the UK — making up to £50,000 doing so.

And in 2022, mum-of-one Inderjeet Kaur, 31, also from Swansea, got eight months’ jail after admitting that she had pretended to be 150 learners.

She charged her customers £800 a time and told police she was lured in to the scam by the money on offer.

Carly Brookfield, of the Driving Instructors Association, said: “If you aren’t competent enough a driver to take a test yourself, you’re not competent full stop — and you will be a risk when you’re on the road.”

The DVSA warned those caught using an impersonator or sitting a test for another driver face being hauled to court and given a driving ban.