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Hongkongers use driving schools over border to get cheap licences illegally

Hongkongers use driving schools over border to get cheap licences illegally

Mainland Chinese middlemen are offering Hongkongers driving lessons and tests at nearly half the price of city rates and showing them how to convert permits into local licences, a practice that authorities have deemed illegal.
Checks by the Post on popular mainland social media platform RedNote have found that a driving school in Shenzhen is offering tailor-made packages for Hong Kong residents, including ways to circumvent legal requirements.
It charges 6,800 yuan (HK$7,422) for a driving course to obtain a licence in Shenzhen, including five test retakes within three years. In Hong Kong, it costs learner drivers at least HK$15,000 for lessons and other fees before taking the test.
The process is also much faster in Shenzhen, where a licence can be attained within three months, compared with at least a year in Hong Kong, assuming a learner passes written and road tests.
'We will lend you our employees' addresses. They are real and reliable,' an agent with the driving school told a Post reporter pretending to be a potential customer.
'More than 1,000 Hongkongers have successfully used our service to obtain mainland driving licences and get them converted in Hong Kong in the past two years.
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