Verona: organization discovered to pass the theoretical driving license exam with external help

An organized system to illicitly pass the theoretical driving license exam with suggestions provided from outside was discovered by the Local Police of Verona, in collaboration with the Traffic Police Section, with an investigation developed over more than four years under the coordination of the Public Prosecutor's Office.

Dozens of officers and agents, with the Document Analysis Laboratory of the Local Police, took part in the investigation, which began in 2022 from an intervention by the Traffic Police at the Verona Civil Motorisation, where a candidate was caught during the exam with hidden devices that allowed the answers to the quizzes to be received remotely. The in-depth analysis of the seized telephone cards and devices has therefore made it possible to progressively broaden the investigative framework.

Further elements emerged in December of the same year after further checks by the Local Police, and the seizure of electronic material on a vehicle outside the exam centre. The analysis of the phones, messages and SIM cards seized has made it possible to connect numerous episodes and candidates from different regions of the North. 12 searches were therefore carried out among offices, SIM card sales points and homes in the municipalities of Bologna, Vicenza, San Bonifacio (Verona) and Reggio Emilia.

The investigators reconstructed a structured organization in which different subjects carried out distinct tasks: from the procurement of candidates to the preparation and delivery of equipment, up to accompaniment to the exam centers and management of the proceeds. For the illicit service, sums of between 2,000 and 3,000 euros were requested.

During the operation, approximately 40,000 euros in cash, dozens of telephone cards registered to non-existent people, earphones, microcameras, telephones and other electronic material, and items of clothing already designed to hide the equipment were seized. Administrative fines of over 10,000 euros were also contested. At the end of the investigations, 41 people were sent to trial for the crime of false attribution of the work of others during public exams or competitions, and by delegation of the Public Prosecutor, 27 licenses of candidates who had illicitly passed the theoretical test were withdrawn and seized.