| Illegal Driving Instructors – How to spot them Report Illegal Instruction here. Illegal driving instructors are they working in your area? It is vitally important particularly in today’s society, that you know who is teaching you, your son or daughter to drive. What should you look for? By law all licensed driving instructors have to display an appropriate licence clearly in the front windscreen of their car (or your car if you are using it) whilst they are providing paid tuition. The licence will be either pink with a triangle on it, which denotes that the instructor is a trainee, or it will be green with an octagon on it which donates a fully qualified driving instructor; these shapes will be visible from the outside of the car The inside must show a photograph of the instructor and a valid date. It will also have the instructor’s name and number on it. There is no excuse for an instructor not to show their licence. In fact there is up to a £1000 fine if they get caught not displaying it. If there is no licence you need to start asking questions. Anyone can get hold of a set of dual controls, a roof sign and some training materials to make them look genuine. And do not be fooled if they say they are with a local or large driving school bad apples appear in any part of society. Since the 12th March 2007 all new driving instructors will have undergone an enhanced Criminal Records Bureau check. This is done before they are allowed to enter the register of approved driving instructors. All existing instructors are being checked as well and within the next 1 to 2 years all instructors should have been checked. The worrying statistic is that only 7000 trainee instructors (who display the pink licence) and 8000 Approved Driving Instructors (who display the green licence) have been checked so far (Oct 07) (there are 41,000 instructors on the register) The Driving Standard Agency Oct 07 update states - “To date refusal / removal proceedings have been started against only 12 PDIs and 8 ADIs” (PDIs are the trainees, with the pink licence and ADIs are the fully qualified instructors with the green license)" I feel this is 20 people too many who may have a history of fraud or offences of a sexual nature in their past. If you or your loved ones are learning to drive with an illegal driving instructor they will not have passed the DSA enhanced CRB check and could have anything in their history! Illegal instructors survive by being really nice, down to earth and friendly. They become your friend so that you will not ask questions or change to a professional instructor. They may offer you cheap driving lessons, but as I always say “you get what you pay for; driving is a skill for life” This also poses the following questions
To sum up here is what to look for
Professional Instructors have gone though a rigorous testing system and will be continually tested and CRB checked. They too are helpful, friendly and down to earth but if they display inappropriate behaviour it is important that you report it to the Driving Standards Agency. Some of the potential instructors who have failed their examinations will continue teaching despite no qualifications! Information on the green and pink licences can be seen in the official DSA guide to driving The “Essential Skills” available at all good book shops. By Kathy Higgins Dip DI Nov 2007 |
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