Asylum seeker arrested for fake provisional licence

 Syed Manzoor, a Pakistani national seeking political asylum in Britain, was arrested on October 4 by the traffic police of Manchester with the wrong charge of possessing a fake provisional license, only because a coloured photo of Manzoor was printed on it.

Photocard licenses issued before 2007 do not have coloured photos, but after 2007, the DVLA started to issue photocard licenses with coloured photos. The traffic police thought that the DVLA still did not issue provisional licenses that had coloured photos; hence, mistakenly arresting Manzoor over the charge of possessing a fake identification document.

Manzoor was interviewed and given one night in the Strangeways jail by the Crown Prosecution Service. He quoted that “it was terrifying in jail, there were fights breaking out all the time and nobody could believe the apparent reason of my presence there”. Manzoor later said that “he quickly thought that they would find out that they wrong but thanked God when he found out that he was going to be released.”

As soon as Manzoor was released, he took legal action against this absurdity from the Crown Prosecution Service. His solicitor, Darren Langton, of Manchester firm Keith Dyson stated that “Manzoor had never been charged for anything before and that his provisional license was genuine. A quick check would have saved all this amount of wasted money”. A DVLA spokesperson stated that “Manzoor’s case was being investigated thoroughly in order to avoid any other similar circumstance to any other potential individual in the future”.