Jail for driving test con-artist

More than 400 people may have cheated the theory test

A man has been jailed for two years after pleading guilty to helping people pass the theory part of the driving test by giving them the answers via a radio link.

Michael Babayan, 49, from Acton, west London, is thought to have made £200,000 and helped more than 400 people falsely pass their test in the scam.

He was charged with fitting nine people with hands-free mobile kits before they went to answer the questions at Palmers Green Test Centre, north London, where he used to work as an interpreter in 2001.

Last year, staff at the centre called in security specialists when they noticed a number of applicants were coming in wearing various types of head gear.

The security staff noticed that two different people took the test wearing identical clothing, except for slightly different bandannas, on the same day.

On other days they noticed seven people who had wire running from the inside of their collars up into their ears.

This posed an obvious risk to the public in that unqualified drivers were on the roads Detective Sergeant Brian Faulkner

They also noted that Babayan's car was parked outside the test centre on several occasions.

The security specialists then mounted a surveillance operation on premises used by the 49-year-old in Palmers Green.

They saw people enter the building dressed normally, but when they left for the test centre they were wearing scarves and hats.

At the test centre they were seen with wires and sometimes had a plaster stuck between their collar and ears.

In November police used equipment normally operated by radio specialists from the Department of Trade and Industry, and detected transmissions from three out of eight candidates who had their tests booked by Babayan.

One of them made a start on the theory test but was stopped by a police officer and was found to have a mobile phone with a hands-free kit inside her clothing attached to her skin and belt.

Licences may be recovered

The connection was still live, and the officer spoke on the phone to a colleague who had simultaneously raided Babayan's place and found him speaking on the other end.

Detective Sergeant Brian Faulkner, who led the investigation, said: "Through this scam Michael Babayan is believed to have accumulated over £200,000 and assisted over 400 people in obtaining the theory test certificates.

"This posed an obvious risk to the public in that unqualified drivers were on the roads."

Six people who all pleaded guilty to obtaining property by deception were not given custodial sentences.

A spokeswoman for the Driving Standards Authority said: "If any candidate is found to have taken the test in a fraudulent way then we will take steps to recover their driving licence."