Eliminated the scheme for issuing illegal driver’s licenses and permits

The security service of the Greek police liquidated a criminal organization whose members systematically engaged in illegal issuance of driver’s licenses and licenses of various types in Western Attica and Corinth.

According to EL.AS11 people were detained, in particular, the head and three employees of the directorate of transport and communications of the regional department, as well as 7 individuals, owners and employees of driving schools. It is noted that in the generated dossier there are 199 people who received documents illegally, whose data is established.

They are accused, as the case may be, of the offenses of forming and joining a criminal organization, false testimony and forgery of documents, bribing an employee by occupation, bribing an employee by profession and occupation, breach of duty by complicity and serially, and in violence against officials and judges.

The investigation into the case began with a complaint that in Corinth, employees of the local Department of Transport and Communications and owners of driving schools with their partners provided future drivers with driver’s licenses of each category, as well as various types of certificates for money, according to a non-standard procedure during a theoretical and practical exam.

This was followed by a months-long investigation within the framework of the corresponding preliminary check. As a result of the evaluation of the data collected, it turned out that there is structured criminal organization, whose members, since at least June 2022, have begun illegally issuing driver’s licenses, as well as certificates of professional conformity, incl. for the transport of dangerous goods, without following the procedure required by law, in at least 194 cases.

The defendants, according to EL.AS, in order to achieve their goal, followed, with rare exceptions, a certain pattern of actions, in theoretical training and depending on the driver’s license. In particular, they indicated the correct answers to the examinees, directly selected the correct answers themselves, wrote down the correct answers on small pieces of paper, which were carefully hidden in the candidates’ examination sheets, replaced the candidate’s examination sheet with another containing the correct answer, and also allowed candidates not to appear on the written test and be considered successful.

As for the test of qualifications and behavior (course), the typical presence of examinees in front of the commission for a few minutes was enough, although there were cases when candidates did not appear for this test at all and received a positive score on the exam. With regard to the cost of issuing a driver’s license, it varied depending on the category of documents requested, as well as the procedure to be followed. It is clarified that the amount received by the school changed if a third person spoke between the driving school and the examinee.

The amounts, however, fluctuated depending on the type of permit and made from 1200 to 2500 euros. The payment of money for the issuance of a driver’s license was made by candidates for drivers by precinct. Initially with an advance payment, and the remaining amount, which was agreed and intended for the employees involved, was paid on the day the document was received in hand. In other cases, when the candidate lived in another region, the prepayment and the necessary supporting documents were sent through courier companies, KTEL, a bank or express payment companies. It is noted that the further distribution of money exchanges to employees of the Directorate of Transport and Communications was carried out by the owners of driving schools.

As for the police operation to dismantle the criminal organization, it was carried out on the morning of Friday, March 3, 2023. At the same time, sheets of A4 paper with answers to exam questions, as well as two bags with similar content in the examination room.

During Operation EL.AS, the owner of a driving school, when approached by the police and claimed his status, got into a taxi as a driver and moved against them with the door open, endangering the life of at least one policeman. Thus, he managed to escape, but yesterday, on Saturday, March 4, he was detained when he voluntarily appeared at the prosecutor’s office, where his accomplice was taken.

As a result of searches conducted in homes and businesses, the arrested persons were found and seized: 199,265 euros, 300 US dollars, several notebooks and handwritten notes about amounts of money and candidates, mobile phones and various digital evidence with electronically registered data of candidates and knowingly fake confirmations of the application for a residence permit for third-country nationals.

According to EL.AS, as of June 2022, the profits obtained by members of the criminal organization illegally range from 292,800 to 610,000 euros. As for the amount of confiscated money, it will be placed in the Deposit and Loan Fund, and confirmation of the application for a residence permit will be sent to the Criminal Investigation Department for laboratory examination. The detainees were taken to the prosecutor’s office and handed over to the investigator.

It is worth noting that this is the fourth such criminal group liquidated by the police over the past 4 years, which was engaged in “assistance” to candidates for obtaining driver’s diplomas or in passing exams for professional categories.

In 2018 LamiaV 2019 And 2022 years in Athens, the activities of 3 similar organizations were uncovered, where people who have money, but do not have the desire to study, could get a driver’s license with almost no effort. At the same time, other applicants for diplomas had problems passing exams, forcing them to pay bribes. Usually applicants, in case of refusing to pay a bribe, were flunked at the practical driving test, forcing them to perform deliberately wrong actions, then convicting the applicants of this. For example, the applicant is told to go to the “brick” and in case of refusal they say that he did not pass the exam, because he did not study the rules well enough (real case).

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