The Guardia Civil and the Madrid Metropolitan Police have dismantled a gang that fraudulently obtained driving licenses in order to sell them to other people for money, with the peculiarity that the imitators always passed the test. “They had sufficient knowledge and sometimes passed the theoretical exams in up to six minutes,” the agents wrote in a statement provided Friday. In the operation, 18 people were arrested in Madrid, A Coruña, Seville, Pontevedra and Murcia, as well as a house in Ferrol, two driving schools (in Seville and Madrid) and a bar in Madrid where the counterfeits were carried out were searched. The band approved the same to obtain the type B license (cars up to 3,500 kilos) or CAP (trucks or buses), with which the points lost by drivers were recovered. One of those arrested was arrested thanks to this illegal network while taking the practical test in a car after passing the theory test. And all of this for between 1,500 and 2,000 euros per card.
The system is a classic in exams: someone else who knows the topic inside and out introduces himself to the real examinee who is not prepared for it. This band's contact came via social networks or word of mouth. First, the imitators asked for the fake person's ID card and an advance payment of between 400 and 500 euros. The next step was to take the document to the buddy bar in Madrid (in the Palomeras district of Madrid). There the document was forged, either by altering just the photo with forgeries that looked like the one supplied, or by methods not much more sophisticated.
The fact is that, as the Guardia Civil points out, the identity theft officers passed the exams with solvency and speed: sometimes in six minutes and sometimes by taking several exams a week at several different points. The mistakenly approved person then paid the entire agreed amount, between 1,500 and 2,000 euros. And he already had a license for the practical test.
The same thing happened to people who took courses to regain their driving license because they had completely lost their points. However, in this case, cooperation with a driving school was required to issue certificates of completion for the awareness and re-education courses, which had not happened. A driving school in Seville (El Pasaje) and another in Madrid's Vallecas district (Magnum Autoescuelas Go!) were registered for their alleged connection to this conspiracy.
The operation was carried out by agents of the Central Research and Analysis Group of the Traffic Group of the Civil Guard (GIAT) and the police stations of the Puente de Vallecas district and the Criminal Traffic Police, both of the Police Corps Madrid, in collaboration with the Provincial Traffic Headquarters concerned. Investigators found dozens of fake IDs, some of them in a safe embedded behind the plaster of a house wall.
Now the Civil Guard is identifying those who benefited from this plan and “is considering revoking the driving licenses of those who acquired them through this criminal organization”.
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