A website run by a company in Spain offering Maltese drivers licences has been pulled from the Internet and is no longer operating. The website claimed it had found loopholes in Maltese law allowing it to issue Maltese drivers licences, through “agents” in Malta, for people who were unable to obtain a licence in the normal fashion.
The dubious operations of the site, www.speedlicence.net, were reported by The Malta Independent on Sunday on 6 January. The site has also been the subject of at least two European parliamentary questions over the past months.
Following the publication of the story, the Malta Transport Authority clarified there were no loopholes in the Maltese legislation and that the site was clearly “illegitimate and illegal”. The ADT had further advised “unsuspecting applicants for driving licences to be aware of these and other kind of internationally operated scams being offered over the Internet”.
Answering an EP question, EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot replied, “The Commission wishes to make it clear that, as stated in Article 1 of the directive in force, only member States can introduce and issue driving licences and that, in accordance with Article 2(2) of the directive, member States must take all necessary steps to avoid any risk of forgery of driving licences… There are therefore no circumstances under which a person may apply for a driving licence, including a renewal, in a Member State other than the one in which that person has his or her normal residence.”
The website, run by a Spanish-registered company, Pearl Migrations S.A., had dubiously claimed it was able to secure Maltese drivers licences without the need of sitting for a driving test and for people otherwise prohibited from being granted a licence in their own country. Additionally and against a supplementary payment, it said it could also deliver a licence without even needing an identity card.
The service, which is of highly questionable legitimacy, was being offered against the payment of hundreds of euros. One option, in fact, offered applicants the possibility of merely submitting a photograph and a signature without sending in a copy of an identity card – for an extra fee of EUR100.
For a base rate of EUR400, EUR500 when not submitting a copy of an identity card, the website promised the end result of a driver’s licence from Malta, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, or Slovenia.
For another EUR100, the company said it could then transfer a Maltese licence, for example, to a licence of any other EU member State. The company said it required payment, only to a bank account number that would be provided, before the application is processed and offered a money-back guarantee.