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?

All licensed driving instructors have to by law 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 valid date. It will also have the instructors 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. Also do not be fooled if they say they are with a local or large driving school.

Since the 12th March 2007 all new driving instructors will have 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 currently and within the next one to two years all instructors should have all been checked.

The worrying statistic is that only 7,000 trainee instructors (who display the pink licence) and 8,000 Approved Driving Instructors (who display the green licence) have been checked so far (there are 41,000 instructors on the register) The Driving Standard Agency update states -

"To date refusal or 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 with the green licence.

This is 20 people too many who may have a history of fraud or offences of a seuxal 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 we always say “you get what you pay for; driving is a skill for life”

Dealing with illegal Driving Instructors also poses the following questions:

Do they have the appropriate instructor insurance? There is only one insurance company I know of who will only insure licensed instructors, they are Instructor Cover. So the insurance companies need to get on board with this too.

Are they teaching you modern methods of driving?
And are they being honest with YOU?
Are they taking you for a ride?

To sum up here is what to look for:

A pink or Green dated licence on show at all times in the window (the pale yellow licence in the photograph is for fleet training, which donates a trainer who has been accredited to coach full licence holders, they still have to gain the green licence first.

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 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.

This article has been produced by Kathy Higgins Dip Di, one of the most quaiified driving instructors in the UK. She can be contacted on 0151-280-4248 / 07748-303545, she runs a driving school herself and is in contact with most of the driving instructor associations and also Drivers Domain UK.com. www.kathyhigginsdipdi.co.uk

The Driving Standards Agency is the government agency responsible for the running of the ADI register and conducting the driving tests www.dsa.gov.uk

CRB Checks have been brought in to protect the public

Both the pink and green licence are of a had plastic and measure 10.5cms by 10.5cms they have a valid date on them and a unique instructor number. As well as a photograph of the instructor that is less then 4 years old.

Driving Instructor examinations are in three parts, which include theory, own driving ability and teaching skills. They only have three attempts at the driving and teaching examinations.