Cheaters are given pride of place during the examination of the Highway Code, if we are to believe the figures of the unions. “There is 40% fraud today in France, and we are seeing more and more of it”, specifies to the Telegram Annaïg Serpin, regional delegate for the union of inspectors, Snica-FO, and inspector since 2002. for its part, the road safety delegation recognizes that it is “a known subject and a real problem”, without however confirming these 40% of fraud.
In question, the outsourcing of the Highway Code, adopted in June 2016. Since that date, the examination can thus be organized by private companies, once the approval of the State has been obtained. Previously, all candidates had to go to a prefectural center and be monitored by state inspectors. Now, eight accredited bodies have their own centers and examiners: SGS with its commercial brand ObjectifCode, La Poste, Code’nGo (Bureau Veritas), Pointcode (PearsonVue), Dekra, FranceCode, Exacode and Easy Code. However, some do not scrupulously monitor the examination or, even worse, organize the fraud themselves.
On social networks, multiple ads offer “to go and pass the code for you, for 300-400 euros”, underlines Annaïg Serpin. In other cases, the fraud comes directly from the examiners, as indicated by the prefect of Mayotte, in an April 12 press release: “More than a hundred fraudulent permits, benefiting people domiciled both in Mayotte and in Reunion or in mainland France, would have been issued on the basis of a theoretical examination validated against remuneration oscillating between 600 and 1200 euros. Legal proceedings have been launched against the individuals involved.
“Some operators call on autoentrepreneurs to supervise these examinations, which leads to these drifts, whereas this is not the case for those who only use employees, who are much more identifiable in the event of controls”, points out Patrick Bessone, national president “Education and road safety” at Mobilians. Note that cheating on the Highway Code is an offense punishable by three years’ imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euros. Fraudsters may also be unable to pass a driver’s license test for five years.
