Sometimes the universe is sending you a message.
A warehouse worker paid a ‘ringer’ £800 to take his driving theory test after failing it 14 times, a court heard.
Mohammad Shoaib was deeply embarrassed when he came to be known as the ‘fifth failure’ by colleagues and friends.
The 38-year-old’s desperation led him to pay for two impersonators almost 35 times the cost of a test to take his theory for him between December 30, 2021 and January 5, 2022.
Stephen Thomas, prosecuting, told City of London Magistrates’ Court: “Mr Shoaib provided a provisional driving licence to enable an impersonator to take his theory test on his behalf.
“On December 30, the impersonator attended the Sidcup theory test centre, but staff at the theory centre were not satisfied with the licence and the man was refused to take the test.
“On January 5, another impersonator attended a Southampton test centre, so quite some distance away.
“On both occasions, they were using Mr Shoaib’s licence. On this occasion, that person was allowed in and passed their test.
That test pass was annulled and Shoaib is continuing to take theory tests. The universe is telling him that this really isn’t something he should be doing. Assuming that he does scrape through, what will the subsequent lessons and practical tests entail?
I had a couple of people come to me for CBT recently. I declined to issue certificates. One of them complained that he only made one mistake. Er, yeah… Running a no entry sign was the one that made me call it a day. He had also consistently failed to ride in an appropriate road position, showed little to no situational awareness, cut across other drivers, went the wrong way round a mini roundabout – I could go on, but you get my drift. I suppose it was one mistake if you put it down to not being able to understand our road systems. I then had to put up with the usual badgering to issue a certificate anyway, because he had a job to go to, a bike on order and he will learn to get better out on his own. The usual list of excuses when I decline to issue a certificate. I’m used to them – heard ’em all before.
Neither of them had bothered to look at a Highway Code, let alone grasp any of its contents. His mate was more sanguine and took my refusal on the chin, but then, he had nearly pranged the bike and if something had been coming, it would have resulted in a written off bike and possible injuries. So, yeah, the universe was sending a message – bikes aren’t for you.
Look at it this way, there will be two fewer pizza delivery riders on the road. For the moment. See also Mr Shoaib. For some people, God never intended you to drive (or ride).
he should have done what the roma and variuos kurds/turks do round here and that’s not bother with licenses/insurance and tax. just make sure you don’t give the dvla your correct details when you buy your car (for cash)
Oh, there’s plenty do that.
I’m not sure that complete ignorance of the rules of the road is necessarily an insurmountable barrier to becoming a competent rider or driver. We all had to learn this stuff at one time in our lives. There does need to be a strong motivation to learn though, I’m not sure that the type of people that you are referring to have that. Trying to think back, I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know the basics of roadcraft, it’s like trying to remember a time before I could read.
It is a barrier to a successful CBT. I simply do not have the time to teach it. They have to have some basic understanding of the rules of the road before they come to us.
Shoaib is one they caught. I wonder how many they don’t catch? Not just the theory but the practical as well. The question “Who took your test for you?” is often appropriate.
I’ve often wondered if we would be better off if there were far fewer laws alongside a ‘Community Living Code’. A ‘Community Living Code’ rather like the Highway Code but about how to behave in public, not necessarily a statement of law but more a set of examples.
It would be nice to clear away all the legal fluff we are mired in although the pissants amongst us wouldn’t read it anyway.
I took my test 28 years ago, when there was no theory element, just practical. I dread to think how I would do at a theory test now. I’ve always been better at practical learning than any other method
If this chap eventually does pass his theory test, you never know, he could sail through the practical part and become a very good driver
Maybe. However, my experience is telling me that the theory test is weeding out the GNIs.
When I took my bike test there was just a couple of random questions about the Highway Code at the end. The theory test came in a short while afterwards. Knowing this I bought a book that had a shed load of multi choice questions from the theory test with the answers in the back. I worked through it and scored about 85%. I found some of the supposedly correct answers to be a bit bizarre.
Indeed. I had to take a theory test not so long ago to upgrade my ticket to cover the ERS course. One of the questions related to braking. The correct answer was that you could only use the rear brake in a bend. Wrong, trail braking is an effective method of cornering using the front brake into the apex before accelerating out as application of the front brake compresses the suspension, making the bike turn more quickly. But if you said to use the front brake, you would be marked wrong.
However, on balance, the theory test does mean that people have to look at the rules of the road and the Highway Code. If they had to do it before they were allowed to take a CBT, it would certainly mean that we wouldn’t be declining certificates as much as we are now.
I arrested a Somalian for this exact offence a few years ago. He was very unlucky.
He took a test on a Friday for a look-a-like and passed. He then had a test booked the next day at a different centre some distance away. Unfortunately for him the same examiner that tested him on the Friday was working overtime on the Saturday as they were backlogged. We attended the centre and swooped.
Investigators attended the police station to do the interview with me and after some digging it was discovered that this criminal had taken over a hundred tests, charging £2000 each!!!
That’s one hundred Somalians that shouldn’t be on the roads. Tip of the iceberg.
In my own small way, I keep some of them off the roads. They have to meet a standard and if they don’t meet it, then no certificate.
I don’t remember what happened on my bike and car tests. But then it was 55 years ago! I’m not sure I could pass now because I can remember helping three of my kids with lessons and testing their highway code – seemed hard. Longrider, any oldies ever do cbt? How did they do?
I was 37 when I did my CBT. I hadn’t ridden a motorbike for around thirteen years at the time but I had ridden around on L plates for a good few years when I was younger. The CBT was at the start of a three day course with a test at the end.
I would like to think that, at the age of 64, that I could pass my car driving test if I had to do it again. I would obviously need some more lessons to bring me up to date and to sort out any bad habits but I think that I could do it.
I did it back in 2011. I got back into biking and the dvla had not put my entitlement on my new photo card licence. I just could not get them to say I had passed my test years earlier, so I went through the whole thing from cbt to the full test.
Ten years ago I was diagnosed as a type one diabetic and put on insulin injections. These have implications for driving because of the risk of hypoglycemia. My licence was restricted at the time, I could no longer drive a seven and a half tonne truck or any van over three tonnes.
Eight months later I was off the insulin and, six months after that, using diet and exercise only to control what had now been decided was type two diabetes. I tried to get my licence returned to its former status but there was no procedure in place for doing so. Makes sense really, if I’m going to fall into a coma while driving and wipe out a bus queue, it would be best to do it in a slightly smaller van.
he failed the theory test FOURTEEN TIMES????? He must have been giving the exact same answers each time, it’s impossible to fail 14 times, only somebody without a brain would fail to notice the set of snaswers they gave last time got them a fail, and so submit a different set of answers. And surely you practice mock tests multiple times and only do the real thing when you’ve got a run of mock passes.
Though I fully expect somebody will describe this as unacceptable “Jim Crow” laws, it’s unacceptable that somebody with a driving license should be expected to have sufficient literacy to pass a written test in the language of the country they want a licence.
I get people turn up for CBT who cannot speak English. How they think this is going to work, beats me. We use a radio to communicate on the road. If you cannot speak English, how will you understand the directions and instructions? Yet still they turn up, hoping to get a certificate of attendance and then go deliver pizzas. They always go away disappointed. I am not going to learn Arabic or Urdu in order to meet their needs. This is England. The language is English.