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Hi all,

I have a question that goes through my mind. It's related to speeding offences, but not a specific one so posting here.

Let's assume a British resident (foreigner or national), legally owns 2 driving licence. One from UK, one from EU.

He drives a car in the UK, and when having an insurance quote, he has to provide his UK driving licence informations.

Question : When receiving a motorist offence notice, can the driver choose to declare his foreign (EU) licence instead of the British one ?

The obvious reason is to avoid the points on the British one, and the premium on insurance renewal, and there would be no offence attached to it.

I'v looked it up and it's quite blurred. First of all, it is allowed to hold those two licences. Then, the insurance, even if the quote requires your driving licence, is issued at your name and your name only.

So I can't find a reason why the police would refuse a submission, if you choose to mention and send a valid EU licence, instead of your UK one.

Any thoughts anyone ? Or return of experience ?

Thank you.

Offences are recorded against a driver record, not a licence. See s 44A of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988.

Points can't be added to a foreign licence, so the DVLA set up a "ghost" licence record. Doing so would presumably flag up the existence of a UK licence holder with the same name and DOB (and possibly address). If so, the OP's cunning plan would fail.

Hi all,

Thanks for the feedback, those are all interesting talks. If I was asked the question, I would declare it. However the insurance that I use usually does not ask for convictions during quote renewals every year (Only for new quotes), and you are not required to disclose it either. So I suppose they would run some sort of a test on your DVLA records to generate that new quote, even though I'm just assuming, hence my question.

However, if it's attached to the driver and they only use the name and DOB, then yes, I assume that would probably get attached to that UK licence.

You would need to pass your driving test in both the UK & EU state to have two driving licences. Do you actually have two driving licences or is this just a hypothetical question?

Yes correct. So I passed my driving test in France many years ago, and exchanged that licence again many years ago, for a full UK on, when I became resident.

I recently passed my bike licence in France, so they issued me a new driving licence over there. It also contained the car licence, as I had it on their records. So I have a UK (car) driving licence, and now a FR (car / bike) driving licence.

I strached my head for a while with that but it seems to be perfectly legal and acceptable, despite consultations a while back before Brexit, it obviously didn't go through now thay Brexit went ahead.

I'v also read that you are required to exchange your foreign licence if you are à resident (which I did), but nothing forces you to use that licence, over a foreign one.

Even in the hypothetical case I am stopped by the police, if I decide to show the FR licence instead of the UK, they will end up saying that it should be exchanged, which I did.

At the end, I understand that the law does not plan for a country to issue à driving licence twice, after the first beeing exchanged already...

So I understand that records are attached to the driver. Also that you need to disclose offences, applied to you. And also, that you need to have a UK licence beeing a UK resident...

With all that beeing said, is choosing to disclose your foreign licence instead of a UK one, when receiving a speed ticket (without thinking of the reasons why that I mentionned on the first post), an offence, or is that then a grey area ?

I found this in the city of London police website :

"If you're a foreign national and have been issued with a licence by the DVLA then you should provide the details of the licence issued by the DVLA. If you don't hold a UK licence then you must send us the licence number and country of issue of your non-UK licence."

I note that they use the word "should" but not "must"

The City of London police would only be guidelines, not what the law actually says. Much like the Highway Code and advice given by the DVLA in a lot of their guidelines, it's what the law actually says that matters.

As may have already been state, the DVLA make a ghost licence and any points or fines will be put on that ghost licence. UK law can ban holders of foreign licences from driving in the UK. That won't affect their ability to drive in their home country or any other country outside the UK.

With all that beeing said, is choosing to disclose your foreign licence instead of a UK one, when receiving a speed ticket (without thinking of the reasons why that I mentionned on the first post), an offence, or is that then a grey area ?

I initially obtained my driving licence (car and motorcycle) in Greece. In 2015, I moved to the UK and exchanged my Greek licence for a UK one. At that time, the rule was that the country issuing the new licence had to send the original licence back to the country of origin. That’s exactly what happened, so the Greek online driving licence database showed my Greek licence as revoked (since the UK was in the EU at the time, and you can only hold one EU licence).

Now, in January 2025, I spoke with the public transport office in Greece, and they told me that to get a new Greek (EU) licence, I would have to hand over my UK licence. However, they also said that because the UK is no longer in the EU, they would simply keep the UK licence “in an envelope” rather than sending it back, and thus from what I understand an EU country does not inform in any way, shape, or form for the handed over driving licence so the driving licence remains perfectly valid in the UK.

Back in the UK, I reported my UK licence as lost. This was because in Greece they required me to hand over a driving licence in order to reissue a Greek licence. They were unable to simply reissue my original Greek licence, as they needed to physically receive a valid licence. That’s the reason I reported it as lost, allowing me to provide my UK licence to Greece while still obtaining a replacement in the UK.

So now I ended up with two perfectly valid driving licences—one from the UK and one from Greece (EU). The reason for doing that was  My UK licence already has 9 points (all from driving 24 mph in a 20 mph zone—clearly I didn’t learn my lesson  ), so I only have one more chance before a ban.

Hopefully, I won’t be posting here again about another speeding ticket, but if I do get caught, I plan to use my Greek licence so those points go there, leaving the UK licence at 9 points. As estevenin mentioned, I’m not sure if this is technically illegal or just a grey area—but that’s the route I’m considering.

I know I am technically gaming the system, and if I do get another speeding ticket, I should pay the consequences. What I want to ask is: would it be technically legal to fill in my Greek driving licence if I get another speeding ticket so I load up that one instead of the UK one?