Everything below was opened and read before it was used. Entries are press reports or official statements, not court records, and where the date shown is the date of publication, we say so.
| Date | What was reported | Source |
|---|---|---|
| January 2020 | RSA staff recognised a theory test impersonator in 2019; nine suspicious incidents among 165,063 candidates in the first ten months of 2019; bans of up to six months possible | TheJournal.ie |
| 12 April 2020 | Gardaí and the RSA warn of a fake Facebook page posing as NDLS that sought over €200 via WhatsApp | TheJournal.ie |
| 22 April 2024 | Cork Circuit Court: man sentenced to three and a half years, final 15 months suspended, over false passport applications in the names of two infants who died in 1952 | RTÉ |
| 18 June 2024 | Garda National Economic Crime Bureau: 124 impersonation incidents, 114 learner permits obtained, all voided and revoked; buyers reported paying up to €2,500 | Galway Daily |
| 26 September 2024 | Dublin District Court: a man with fake Irish and British licences and no insurance; two-year driving ban, fines of €500 in total | TheJournal.ie |
| 22 October 2024 | Letterkenny District Court: buyer of a fraudulent theory test certificate; six months suspended for two years | Irish Times |
| 24 December 2024 (offence date) | Roscommon District Court: possession and use of a forged Portuguese licence; two €750 fines and a destruction order | Roscommon Herald |
| 20 September 2025 | Dublin District Court: a former driving instructor charged with two conspiracy offences over theory test impersonation, after extradition from Cyprus | RTÉ |
| 24 November 2025 | Tallaght District Court: disqualified driver fined €500 for using a false licence under section 26 | Courts News Ireland |
| 15 January 2026 | The former instructor jailed for 12 months for 21 impersonated theory tests, backdated to his extradition | Irish Times |
| Late 2025 (date not shown in our copy) | Dublin Circuit Criminal Court: an impersonator who sat 10 tests at €250 each sentenced to four months, consecutive to another sentence | Echo |
Patterns across the log
- Theory test impersonation is the best-documented fraud. It produced prison sentences and revoked permits.
- Licence cards are usually found by gardaí on the road. The three reported cases ended in fines and a ban.
- Look-alike services are warned about, not prosecuted, in what we found. We found a 2020 warning for NDLS and a Passport Service alert, but no reported conviction.
What we left out
We saw other reports in search results, including a Garda who lost an appeal over a false licence, a learner permit holder who produced a fake licence in Laois, and a false Belgian licence in Portlaoise. We did not open them, so they are not here. We add a case only after reading its report.
See also the law page for the ceilings, and fake Irish driving licences for the licence cases in detail.
Numbers behind the cases
| Figure | What it counts |
|---|---|
| 124 | Theory test sittings by impersonators in the Garda investigation |
| 114 | People who obtained learner permits, all revoked by the RSA |
| €1,000 to €2,500 | Reported price paid per impersonated test |
| €150 and €250 | Reported payments to impersonators per test |
| 9 of 165,063 | Suspicious incidents among candidates in the first ten months of 2019 |
| €500, €1,500 | Reported fines in two licence cases (the €1,500 being two fines of €750) |
How to read this log
Press reports compress a hearing into a few paragraphs, and sentencing can have reasons we cannot see. We record what was reported and name no defendant. A conviction in one case does not tell you what a court would do in yours, and a ceiling in the Act is not a prediction.
What the log cannot tell you
It cannot tell you how many fake licences are in circulation, how many people pay for NDLS look-alike services, or how typical any sentence is. The reports are the ones that reached the press, and Irish District Court cases are not all reported. We have no figures for convictions in total, and we do not estimate.