After 40 years driving, DVLA now says my mother never passed a test

Just before her 70th birthday, my mother sent the paperwork to renew her driving licence. But instead of a full car licence, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) issued her with one for a moped. She has never ridden a moped in her life.

She assumed this was an administrative error and complained. However, the DVLA said it had no record of her passing a category B (car) driving test and holding a full licence.

My mother had a scan of her old paper licence, which was issued in 1978, and she sent this as evidence. She was staggered when the DVLA wrote back repeating its position, but also implying that the licence had been tampered with as the “font of the B” in the entitlement section “is not how we would expect it to appear”.

My mother was a stay-at-home parent for many years before working in a primary school as an administrator. She has no criminal record and no points on her licence. The idea that she would falsify the document is absurd and insulting. The upshot of all of this is that my mother can no longer drive a car.

She used to be a hands-on grandmother to my two daughters but we live a car ride away, with no option of public transport, so without a valid licence she is reliant on my father.

This saga coincided with her being diagnosed with breast cancer involving two rounds of surgery and other treatment.

My best guess is that her records became mixed up with somebody else’s when older DVLA records were digitised. It says she should sit a new test but I think the stress would do more harm than good.

I am also haunted by what might have happened had she been in an accident and asked to produce a licence that, according to the DVLA, did not entitle her to drive the sort of vehicle she drove for more than 40 years.

EG, by email

A driving test is a rite of passage, and your mother has a clear memory of sitting hers. She is understandably very upset that what she thought would be a routine licence renewal has become a nightmare at a time when she was having cancer treatment.

I found a couple of similar cases in online forums, and BBC One’s Watchdog programme also reported on experiences of this kind, albeit more than a decade ago. I would be keen to hear if other readers have been affected more recently.

Even after I asked the DVLA to revisit your mother’s case, its position has not altered. Its records show your mother being issued with a provisional licence in 1976 that was updated with a test pass for group E (this is now category P and covers two-wheeled vehicles with an up to 50cc engine) in 1977 with a licence issued the following year. There is “no trace” of a category B automatic test pass.

The agency says the scan she sent in does not provide sufficient evidence to amend its records. It adds that the font of the B in the entitlement section of the licence is not “how it would expect it to appear” when compared with the same letter in the address section. The implication is that the E has been altered to a B.

Your mother says she did not “touch up or alter” her licence. She also assures me she has never ridden a moped.

The DVLA says it has backup systems, including microfiche, that hold the details of every licence issued for more than 30 years. It says extensive manual and electronic searches were made.

We have exhausted the DVLA’s formal complaints procedure, and the agency confirms your case is being passed to an independent complaints assessor for a review.

Your mother could sit a new test, of course, but feels this would be an admission of having knowingly driven illegally for more than 40 years. I hope the review can get to the bottom of this.