DVLA refused to replace full driving licence because original was provisional

What happened

In spring 2012, Mr H applied to DVLA for a replacement driving licence because he had misplaced the original. DVLA refused the application for a full licence because the driver record showed that Mr H had not claimed his full licence within two years of passing his test, as required by law. Instead, DVLA issued a replacement provisional licence.

Mr H complained to DVLA. He said that DVLA had made a mistake and had not properly recorded when it issued his licence. He gave DVLA a copy of a police officer's witness statement, relating to an incident in autumn 2007 that showed that the police officer had confirmed with DVLA that Mr H held a full licence. DVLA would not comment on the police statement and said that a check of the driver record would have showed that Mr H's licence status was provisional.

What we found

DVLA's records contradicted Mr H's claim that he held a full licence. We contacted the police and Mr H's former employer to try to get impartial evidence to reconcile the conflicting information.

While the police officer's statement supported Mr H's version of events, it was not confirmed by any of the other evidence we saw. We examined DVLA's records and we were satisfied that any enquiries made about Mr H's driver record at the time would have shown that Mr H's licence status was provisional.

Mr H told us that he had previously worked in car sales and had needed a full driving licence as a condition of his employment. Mr H's former employer gave us a copy of the driving licence that Mr H had shown when he took the job. There were several discrepancies between the copied licence and Mr H's personal details and the information in DVLA's records. We were not satisfied that the copied licence was a genuine copy of a licence issued by DVLA to Mr H.

Taking all the evidence into account, we were not persuaded that DVLA had issued a full driving licence to Mr H and we did not uphold his complaint.