TRANSPORT officials have expressed alarm at the appearance of a website offering fake Cyprus driving licences for as little €390, saying the scam could potentially endanger thousands of road users.
The website, which appears to be based in Poland, displays a full specimen of the Cyprus driving licence and offers customers the option to add professional HGV entitlement as a ‘free bonus’.
It is unknown how many licences the site has issued, but in a series of undercover communications with the Sunday Mail, the site owners claimed they were “very busy and processing would take a little longer than usual.”
The site is said to be popular with disqualified drivers and those who have failed their test and asks clients to electronically transfer the funds, email a photo and specify what type of licence they want.
In a series of no-nonsense emails from the company, they promised to provide a full, clean Cypriot driving licence within 21-days, for an additional surcharge of €140.
“We can obtain you a Cyprus licence by exchange from DVLA (we can also add extra categories this way and exchange with other EU countries),” they claimed.
“Using exchange loopholes we exchange a temporary, provisional, foreign or a banned licence.”
The mastermind of the scam also added that the cost for an EU licence is between €390 to €590 – depending if we could provide a provisional licence number.
They also offered a cheaper alternative, which is to obtain a Polish licence then exchange that for a genuine Cypriot one at the Department of Transport in Cyprus.
“Many people do it this way,” they claimed.
Authorities in Cyprus have expressed shock at the website, with senior Road Transport Officer, Yiannis Nicolaides telling the Sunday Mail that the scam was unknown to him.
“I have not heard of this website. But I do know a small number of fake licences are around. This happened a few years ago when we discovered that ten or so poor quality fake Greek licences had been exchanged for genuine licences here.
“However, we send exchange licences back to the issuing authority so they were discovered a few months later.”
A police spokesman was also worried that unqualified drivers could be on the roads and admitted that false documents are occasionally discovered, but said their origin was unknown.
“I admit this phenomenon is happening in Cyprus, when we suspect a licence is not real, we contact the issuing authority and proceed to court if it is not real,” he said.
A series of glowing testimonials by satisfied customers are also published on the website, which claims that “due to new European integration we are now able to offer you genuine European drivers licences.”
“Nice one you actually delivered what you promised I can’t believe I have all the entitlements there is,” wrote one customer.
The website also offers false documents to help disqualified drivers in the UK, Germany and France and claims to work through a series of “elaborate loopholes.”
“This service is for any resident or non-resident of the EU to obtain a full driving licence without any tests. Once you have a driving licence through us, you can exchange it in your own country for a local licence,” they boasted.
The scourge of fake licences is becoming increasingly difficult for police in Europe to tackle, with a growing number of non-EU nationals driving on Europe’s roads.
It is thought that new Cypriot plastic card licences, which will replace paper driving licences no later than next year, will help to stamp out fake permits.
The new licence, which is styled like a credit card and will have a photograph, is already in use in a large number of other European countries and looks set to be introduced in Cyprus early next year.
It’s thought the majority of fake licences in circulation in Europe are forgeries of documents from Britain and the former eastern bloc.
In a statement to the Sunday Mail, Karen Joseph from the British Department of Transport said websites that sold fake licences were committing an offence and using a fake licence carries a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment in the UK.
“To date we have no intelligence on a specific threat from counterfeit Cypriot driving licences,” she added.
