INVESTIGATION: The black market for fake driving tests thriving in the UK
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 6 November 2025
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Almost 700,000 people are waiting to book their driving test in the UK, a record backlog which is being exploited by scammers. Our reporter Emma Kirwan found victims across the UK have already paid out more than £134,000 this year trying to book slots which don’t exist. So, she tracked down a scammer and got him on the phone.
This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: http://thetimes.com/thestory
Guest: Emma Kirwan, reporter, Times Radio.
Host: Manveen Rana.
Producer: Olivia Case.
Clips: Times Radio.
Photo: Getty Images.
Get in touch: thestory@thetimes.com
This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | From the Times and the Sunday Times, this is the story. I'm Manvina. |
| 0:11.1 | A few weeks ago, my colleague Emma Kirwan was on the phone, trying to book a driving test. |
| 0:19.0 | We will book your test for you. |
| 0:21.1 | And after getting the email, confirmation email that you have, your test has booked, |
| 0:25.4 | then you have to pay $260. |
| 0:27.2 | That's fine. |
| 0:28.3 | Because I already failed once and I'm just, I just can't. |
| 0:33.0 | Even the stress of like going through it again, it's just all. |
| 0:36.6 | But Emma isn't talking to the proper government agency. |
| 0:40.4 | She's talking to a scammer. |
| 0:43.5 | I have a person by taking some bribe hypothesis. |
| 0:47.4 | If you want, I can, you know, talk to him about your matter. |
| 0:54.0 | Scammers, like this man, have spotted an opportunity. |
| 0:59.4 | With a driving test system in crisis, struggling to cope with a record-breaking backlog, |
| 1:05.6 | people are desperate to find a booking. |
| 1:09.2 | And in this year alone, the public has already been conned out of £134,000, paying for |
| 1:17.1 | driving test slots which just don't exist. |
| 1:21.3 | So what's the government doing to ease the crisis? |
| 1:25.1 | And how did Emma meet and confront her scammer? |
| 1:33.8 | The story today. |
| 1:40.1 | The scammers selling fake driving tests. |
| 1:51.2 | Yeah. The scammers selling fake driving tests. I do drive, thankfully, because I wouldn't want to be dealing with everything that all these learners |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Times, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Times and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.