The hunt for dodgy driving instructors

LAURIE DEVITT

MOTORING instructors operating illegally in Burton have been targeted as part of a joint sting with police and the Driving Standards Agency (DSA).

Two teams of officers from Staffordshire Police's road crime team have been patrolling the streets of Burton with DSA officials in a bid to crackdown on the growing number of dodgy driving instructors providing their services to unsuspecting members of the public.

In total, 12 driving schools, including LCD, Surepass, Bill Plant and Trevor Yates were all stopped while conducting lessons early yesterday morning - and all were found to be operating legally.

The DSA's deputy head of fraud and integrity, Michelle Moston, and its chief executive, Rosemary Thew, joined PC Eric Moorfield to carry out the checks in areas near Burton's driving test centre, in Wellington Road.

A Mail reporter and photographer also attended.

Ms Moston said: "We had several people we were targeting.

"However, we cannot take action against an illegal driving instructor unless we can prove they are actually doing it for money.

"We don't have powers of arrest, so have to be accompanied by police."

Ms Thew said that the number of illegal driving instructors on the DSA database had increased dramatically since 2005 - with 600 detected so far since March, 2008.

"Being a driving instructor is a very important job," she said.

"You are training someone to drive for the rest of their lives and potentially, you are letting someone on the road who is not safe if you are not a DSA approved driving instructor.

"From the customers' point of view, they are learning with someone who's not qualified so will be at risk, they will not be a safe driver and will probably fail their test.

"Most of the driving instructors we have spoken to today say they are very happy that we are out doing checks because these people are taking away their livelihoods."

Instructor Garry Dennis, who was stopped and found to be operating legitimately, said: "It is good to see them out doing these checks because it really irritates us knowing that instructors are operating illegally in Burton."