Learner drivers have been cautioned to be cautious about where they book their exams, with illegitimate sites taking advantage of a huge waiting list by charging more than three times the amount. Practical tests in Wales and England are currently backlogged by four and a half months due to the coronavirus pandemic delays.The official fee is £62 via the official government website, however some illegitimate websites are profiting from the situation by reselling the exams for £195. Bots are being utilized to reserve test spaces faster than any person could. Since January 2023, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has issued 283 warnings, 746 suspensions, and closed 689 firms for misusing the booking service.But the RAC says on its website that it has found many slots can still be bought through third parties online as they are sold via encrypted WhatsApp chats. One person who has been affected is Lara Olszowska. She told the RAC: "I bought into the driving test black market at £169 for a test worth £62 just to avoid having to retake my theory and delay my practical exam. I gave them my driving licence number, my theory certificate number, and my home address without batting an eyelid.""After failing that test I went online to try to book my next attempt but the DVSA website kept popping up with an 'error' message. That led to a fateful phone call with the DVSA where I learned my account was blocked for having 'too many' tests booked using my details even though I was blissfully unaware for the years it was going on."

"A company had used my details to repeatedly book tests under my name 52 times and swap them with other candidates who wanted the slots for triple the price. My advice to other drivers is always to book through the DVSA online or over the phone and, if you have months of waiting time, plan backwards from there with your instructor so you know you are more than ready to pass by the time your test date comes. You don't want to end up spending hundreds on sooner test dates only for a third party to run off with your details to book multiple tests so your details get blocked and you find out when it's too late."

RAC head of policy Simon Williams said: "It's terrible that 'brokers' using software to reserve tests faster than a human possibly could are making it so hard for learners to book test slots. It seems as though technology is constantly being used to cheat the system as we've been told someone's driving licence number was used to book multiple tests."

"Definitive action needs to be taken to prevent 'bots' booking tests and then selling them on to desperate learners for crazy amounts of money. This leads to genuine slots being wasted and learners, who are ready to take their tests, missing out and having to wait months for a chance to become a qualified driver. It's no wonder some learners end up booking test slots before they're ready."

"It's also very wrong that real people who are genuinely trying to book their tests are being treated as if they are 'bots' because their data has been stolen by fraudsters. The best course of action before the DVSA finds a solution to this problem once and for all is to book only via the official government website and not pay well over the odds by using a so-called broker's site."

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