The Great Licence Gamble!

Driving with an expired or invalid driver’s licence or even without ever having taken the test to obtain one are more common violations than we might think and can, in some cases, land drivers in court.

Driving to a course to get your driver’s licence back… even though a court ruling has revoked it. Using an earpiece during the theory test. Driving with a foreign, falsified licence. All these cases and many more are seen regularly. The inventiveness of the most irresponsible drivers seems limitless when it comes to cheating with this document, but their behaviour, in addition to posing an obvious road hazard, can constitute a crime.

Article 84.4 of the Traffic and Road Safety Law (LTSV) clearly establishes that there are matters that fall outside the jurisdiction of municipal authorities to impose sanctions. These provisions include Title IV, which includes everything related to administrative driving permits. Cheating with these permits can constitute a minor, serious, or very serious infraction, and some result in points being deducted. But let’s look at the most common ones and review their consequences.

It is worth noting that those drivers from the UK who become resident in Spain are no longer allowed to drive on their UK licence and have to exchange it for the Spanish equivalent. The exchanging was always the case before, but since Brexit the process is different, and for residents the UK licence is no longer valid. Tourists may still use their licence.

Violations involving licences from other countries are common. Last year, 21,606 fines were issued to people driving with a licence that was not valid in Spain. Furthermore, 16,026 drivers had not exchanged their licence; in 3,039 cases, the driver had not renewed it after acquiring residency in Spain.

It’s worth remembering that driving licenses from third countries (non-EU or EEA) are valid for driving in Spain if they meet certain requirements: they must be valid at the time of issue, the holder must be of the required age in Spain to obtain an equivalent Spanish licence, and the maximum period of six months from the date the holder acquired normal residence in Spain has not elapsed. After this period, the driver must exchange their licence for a Spanish one. “In case of failure to comply with this obligation, the penalty can range from 200 euro (if the licence is exchangeable) to 500 euro when the original licence is not exchangeable due to not meeting the essential requirements, or when there is no agreement with the issuing country for the homologation of driving licences,” explains María Ángeles Ocaña Salas.

Other Irregularities

Among the serious irregularities, it is worth highlighting those committed by some drivers who return to the road after serving their criminal sentence for driving ban, but without having completed the mandatory driver awareness and re-education course. Article 73 of the Traffic and Road Safety Law establishes the obligation to complete this course, and failure to do so carries a fine of 200 euro. Furthermore, driving while serving a criminal sentence for driving ban is even more serious and is classified as a violation of a sentence, as set out in Article 468 of the Criminal Code.

Cheating on a driving test, or at least attempting to do so, is an offence introduced in the latest regulatory amendment, Law 18/2021 of December 21. It is considered very serious and carries a fine of 500 euro and a ban from taking a new test for six months. This regulatory amendment addresses cases involving the use of unauthorised intercom devices during tests to obtain and recover driving licences or permits. However, if another person is sent to impersonate the candidate for the test, this would constitute a case of identity theft or civil status impersonation, as it is referred to in Article 401 of the Criminal Code. This constitutes a potential crime punishable by prison terms of six months to three years.

The Supreme Court has ruled on driving with a licence from another country after a Spanish licence has been declared invalid due to the exhaustion of points. These are cases in which drivers fraudulently seek to avoid the effects of the declaration of invalidity by exchanging another driver’s licence in a European Union country, either during the expiration of the validity procedure or once it has been declared invalid. The Supreme Court, Criminal Division, ruled in its ruling 612/2017 that it is not possible to hold two licences and use whichever is appropriate at any given time, especially when driving in a country whose regulations prohibit driving as a result of the violations committed, which entail the expiration of the licence due to the total loss of points.