Driving test cheating explodes with impersonators, hidden phones and bluetooth headsets employed
Falsifying driving tests leapt up by 47 per cent last year as learners face 22-week waits
Incidents of learner drivers attempting to cheat their driving test have leapt up by almost 50 per cent in the past year as drivers wince at the possibility of failure amidst record wait times for booking slots.
A Freedom of Information request by the Press Association uncovered that there were more than 2,800 cases of cheating in the year leading up until September 2025 – 47 per cent higher than the year prior.
Roughly 1,100 of these cases involved a Bluetooth headset – i.e with a person on the other end feeding the candidate information wirelessly – or a concealed phone in order to cheat answers in the theory test. There were also just over 1,000 cases of a person turning up claiming to be someone else for the theory test, as well as almost 650 instances of someone pretending to be another person for the practical exam.
In total, 96 people were prosecuted for either impersonating someone in an exam or trying to cheat. A court heard in June 2025 that a man had impersonated other learner drivers as many as 12 times at theory test centres; the hearing also uncovered that impersonators sometimes charged as much as £2,000 for their services.
Speaking to the BBC, chief executive of the Driving Instructors Association, Carly Brookfield, said: “It’s inevitable in an era of lots of demand, but very little consistent supply, that you are going to get people engaging in risky behaviours, like using a cheat service to try and pass.”
Driving test backlogs remain incredibly high, with the average wait time for a test standing at 22 weeks towards the end of 2025; a statement by the Government says that it doesn’t expect things to get back to normal until at least late 2027.
In the meantime, the DVSA’s enforcement director, Marian Kitson, said: “It is essential that all drivers demonstrate they have the right skills, knowledge, and attitude to drive safely. People who attempt to cheat driving tests put all road users at risk by trying to obtain a driving licence fraudulently.
"Our counter-fraud team carries out robust investigations into suspected fraud,” she continued, “working with the police to bring fraudsters to justice and keep Britain's roads safe."
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