Those with illegal driving licences given a month to relinquish them – 12 JPJ staff nabbed for involvement

Those with illegal driving licences given a month to relinquish them – 12 JPJ staff nabbed for involvement

If you happen to be one of those who bought your driving licence without sitting for the theory and practical exams, you have a month to ‘fess up and relinquish your lesen terbang.

Transport minister Anthony Loke announced that failure to comply with the order will see action being taken against holders of these illegal driving licences, the Malay Mail reports. He said that the ministry has identified 14,000 such licences issued by the Road Transport Department (JPJ) in the last two years.

“Volunteer and come forward with the lesen terbang that you bought. We have your details, and the data. Our system has all information of when, where and who, so it is not hard for us to reach you,” he said.

Loke said internal investigations by JPJ showed that the majority of the lesen terbang holders are Malaysians, but there were also foreigners who bought their Malaysian driving licences. “For foreign nationals, the highest number of purchases are Chinese nationals, followed by Japan, Singapore and Brunei,” he said.

Those with illegal driving licences given a month to relinquish them – 12 JPJ staff nabbed for involvement

He said as much as the JPJ officers who issued the licences have committed an offence, those who purchased them are also equally liable, but added that those who come forward will not have any action taken against them as they may be called to assist the ministry as witnesses.

Loke said that the move to clean things up has already begun with the arrest of 12 JPJ staff for suspected involvement in the issuance of illegal licences. He said the 12 consisted of a deputy director, two assistant enforcement officers, two assistant enforcement chiefs, six enforcement assistants and one administration assistant from Perlis, Perak, Negri Sembilan, Sabah and Sarawak.

“In the case of 12 who were arrested and are out on bail, they may not have been charged in court but I have instructed that they be suspended from their duties. This is to send a strong message to the others in the department that we will not tolerate such acts,” he said.

Loke said the illegal licence activity begins with ‘runners’ who promote the service on social media accounts to obtain clients. Once a deal has been struck, the ‘runner’ then deals with the JPJ officer to work on the issuance of the licence, and the client makes half of the payment amount.

Those with illegal driving licences given a month to relinquish them – 12 JPJ staff nabbed for involvement

He said that as soon as the process is completed, the JPJ will record it in the system and that will enable a genuine licence to be issued and the ‘runner’ will then send the licence to their client by post upon receiving the balance payment from the client, with each licence being sold for between RM2,000 and RM3,500.

As for foreign applicants, Loke said authorities have identified one JPJ branch office that was carrying out the licence conversion, and as such the ministry has now decided that all licence conversion can only be done at the state JPJ office.

“JPJ staff will process the licence applications by using the international conversion licence procedure, as though the applicant has had a driver’s licence in another country. But our checks revealed that these individuals never have visited or worked in any foreign country or have they ever had a driver’s licence of another country,” he said.

Loke said such syndicates are not only causing the government to lose its income but also bringing a negative image to the country. “Even worse is we have drivers who have not attended any driving lessons and are therefore endangering other motorists,” he said.

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Anthony Lim

Anthony Lim believes that nothing is better than a good smoke and a car with character, with good handling aspects being top of the prize heap. Having spent more than a decade and a half with an English tabloid daily never being able to grasp the meaning of brevity or being succinct, he wags his tail furiously at the idea of waffling - in greater detail - about cars and all their intrinsic peculiarities here.

 

Comments

  • anti-lesen-terbang on Sep 14, 2018 at 8:37 am

    whoever is involved must be
    punished with severe penalties/punishment
    because it involves the lives of
    others.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 19 Thumb down 0
    • This is barbaric. in previous administration, the old Transport Minister wud condone the act of 12 arrested JPJ officer. Worse case scenario, plz allow them transfer to other JPJ branch..

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 5 Thumb down 1
      • Pilihanraya Kalah Teruk on Sep 14, 2018 at 4:26 pm

        Lucky we have clean Loke to make sure JPJ are doing their job honestly. Finally we will see clean enforcement. Been waiting for this 61 years.

        Like or Dislike: Thumb up 15 Thumb down 1
    • Dark_Bow on Sep 17, 2018 at 12:46 pm

      Im surprised even japanese also do this.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 0
  • Pilihanraya Kalah Teruk on Sep 14, 2018 at 8:46 am

    Shocking to hear there are 14,000 illegal drivers causing accidents on the road.

    As we know, these are official figures. Expect the real figure to be 10X like 140,000 illegal licence.

    Also don’t forget there are officially 4 to 5 million motorist on the roads with no driving lesen.

    We can thank duit kopi culture for this figure balooning. This is because 20 years ago, there were hardly 20,000 motorist without lesen. In 20 years, it can lompat from 20,000 to 5 million no lesen.

    Don’t forget also there are 10 million otorist on our roads. This means 1 in every 2.5 road users got no lesen.

    And you wonder why got no accidents?

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 20 Thumb down 8
    • Are you sure those 14,000 illegal drivers ‘will’ causing accidents on the road? Do you know some of them are retired government servants that previously given vehicles to drive?

      Relax. Don’t blame those illegal drivers as some of them are also normal drivers that able to drive like is. Not all of them.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 7
      • Pilihanraya Kalah Teruk on Sep 18, 2018 at 8:09 am

        sorry illegal is illegal. Wrong is wrong. If you don’t study how to drive, you cannot know rules and regulations to drive. Simple.

        Like or Dislike: Thumb up 3 Thumb down 0
  • Unbelievable on Sep 14, 2018 at 9:23 am

    Not be charged!! Instead suspended only. They have made millions already … Hopefully they are not allowed to pension with honor and all gratuity intact. Let’s see how this goes..

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 7 Thumb down 1
    • If they can drive around with an expired license, you think they can’t drive around with no license at all?

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 3 Thumb down 0
  • FireAce on Sep 14, 2018 at 10:03 am

    Mr. Loke, please enforce the rounding up of offenders, make sure your words bears weight. I’m sure out of the 14000 illegal license holders, best case scenario you will probably get 20%.

    Don’t become like previous administration, talk big but no action. That’s why we have so many people braking the laws because the enforcement is a FAILURE!!

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 11 Thumb down 3
  • Jared David on Sep 14, 2018 at 11:45 am

    All the unqualified guarantee pass drivers time to pay your dues. Hahahaha

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 0
  • Eternalgl0ry on Sep 14, 2018 at 1:12 pm

    Only 12?

    Lol most likely scapegoats. I dare to say 3/4 or more of the foreigner license are forged

    Those locals that never even attend the course are also as well.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 2 Thumb down 0
  • Ghost on Sep 14, 2018 at 4:18 pm

    If they know the culprits drivers..why wont JPJ just call them or go to their house etc or publish their names in websites/papers etc? why would the culprits want to return their license voluntarily.

    I cant understand the logic.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 3 Thumb down 0
    • panjang on Sep 14, 2018 at 6:01 pm

      Its one way of showing whose the boss.
      A boss only need to tell what he wants and wait for it to happen, if nothing happen then be a boss again and take action. Why bother with the mess of searching them and publishing the namelist which can have bad side effect.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 2 Thumb down 2
  • Levin on Sep 14, 2018 at 4:44 pm

    Good move. Make sure those 12 JPJ staff nabbed shall be fined adequately as they have been feeding off this illegal activity and enjoying a lavish lifestyle. They have to pay for all their bad deeds and worst case, govt should confiscate all their assets.
    On a side note, what is JPJ going to do about “tonto”? The other day I spotted a JPJ vehicle being tailgated by 3 tontos, which happened to be fully tinted and multiple radio antenna sticking on the roof. Not only these tontos were driving recklessly, the JPJ vehicle itself was speeding as it was trying to avoid being caught up by the tontos. Is Malaysia really a lawless country???

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 6 Thumb down 0
  • Alibaba Chiam on Sep 15, 2018 at 2:16 am

    Boss u are very good… tangkap kalau salah..Orang asing cina
    Banyak beli license pemandu tipu..tak tahu bahasa dan tak tahu undang dan tak uji jpj macam mana boleh senang dapat license pemandu..lain lain orang asing negara pun ada tipu license beli dan Malaysian..JPJ mesti mahu check betul betul..Dulu kerajaan tak check..amat bahaya..Tangkap kalau salah..

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 0
  • Bernard on Sep 15, 2018 at 1:11 pm

    I am sure there are millions out there who bought their driving licenses.

    This is just the tip of the iceberg!

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 0
  • Road User on Sep 17, 2018 at 9:47 pm

    Take action on the those drivers. Publish their names in newspapers. Otherwise it will not be taken seriously. As for the JPJ officials involved, there should be jail time.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
 

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