| You never know who you might run in to...
Somalian driver took L-tests for 200
By Stewart Payne
(Filed: 26/09/2006)
A Somalian working as a London bus driver sat the written stages of up to 200 driving tests for his fellow countrymen, a court was told yesterday.
Deeg Mohammed, 27, charged as much as £500 for each examination then handed over pass certificates to allow the people whose identities he had assumed to take the practical test.
He was jailed for a year at Guildford Crown Court, Surrey. Recorder Paul Clements told him that his offences could have killed others.
The authorities became suspicious when they found that payments for some written tests had been made on the same credit card. An investigation caught Mohammed on CCTV taking 15 tests in six counties. He passed all of them.
He was arrested taking a test in Staines, Middx, and told the police that he had sat the tests for fellow Somalis because it was not available in their language.
He presented photographic identification for each test, provided by the man he was impersonating. Test centre staff failed to notice that he was not the person in the photograph.
Mohammed, of Battersea, south London, admitted 15 counts of conspiracy to obtain property by deception.
Matthew Banham, prosecuting, said he had been paid £300 to £500 a test. Richard Job, defending, said that Mohammed had not appreciated the implications for public safety. He had sat the tests out of loyalty to Somalians.
*****
Doesn't say anything about tracing those 200 and taking their licence of 'em. :Fume:
Ains.  | 
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