A Ghanaian man living in Belgium became so frustrated with constantly failing the theoretical part of the driving test that he paid a lookalike to take the test in his place.

Serge, a Ghanaian immigrant living in Grammont, Belgium, had been struggling to pass his driving license exam for over a year. The man had already obtained a license in Ghana, but he couldn’t use it to drive a car in Belgium, and the theoretical part of the exam had been giving him some serious headaches.

Serge had tried and failed the test 12 times, but he couldn’t just give up, as having a driver’s license opened up some very lucrative options for him in Belgium. In the end, he decided that cheating was his best bet, so he started looking for someone with similar looks to take the test on his behalf.

After a while, Serge met Julien, a fellow immigrant of Congolese origin, who not only looked somewhat similar but, most importantly, had already obtained his Belgian driver’s license. The two agreed that taking the test in Mons, in the Belgian region of Wallonia, was better because examiners in the French-speaking region were considered more lenient than those in Flanders.

Unfortunately, their assessment of the examiners’ leniency was wrong. As soon as Julien gave one of the examiners Serge’s ID in the exam room, he knew he was in trouble. Instead of simply looking him over, the person was examining Julien closely and noticing the facial differences between him and Serge. Both men were eventually taken into custody and they recently appeared before a judge.

“Without the vigilance of this person (the examiner), he would have received his driving license, even though he is not capable of driving on our roads,” a prosecutor said about Serge in court.

The Ghanaian man stands accused of identity fraud, even though he used his real ID card. The prosecutor explained that as soon as his ID wound up in the hands of the co-defendant for the benefit of Serge, it technically became fake. Now he faces a suspended sentence of one year behind bars, while in Julien’s case, prosecutors asked for two hundred hours of community service. The sentence is due in one month.

Serge’s lawyer told La Libre that he still hasn’t gotten his driver’s license, but he can get a job at a local packaging company that he can reach by train…