A total of 14,000 'lesen terbang' motorists have one month from today to surrender their illegally-obtained licences at any state Road Transport Department (RTD) Integrity Unit or risked being tracked down by the authorities, said Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook.

'Lesen terbang' refers to licences obtained illegally by making a payment and without sitting for the written and practical tests.

Loke said the information on lesen terbang was uncovered after the MACC detained 12 RTD officers and personnel from Perlis, Perak, Negeri Sembilan, Sabah and Sarawak in an operation that began on Sept 4.

“The RTD has detailed information on the identity of the 'lesen terbang' motorists, RTD officers involved and its branch offices that issued the licences,” he said in a press conference at his ministry in Putrajaya today.

He said the modus operandi to issue the 'lesen terbang' was by using RTD's system for the conversion procedure for foreign drivers to key in fake information and produce the illegal licences.

“Each licence is sold between RM2,000 and RM3,500 via advertisements on social sites where the buyer only has to make payment and the licence will be delivered to them,” he said adding that there were also foreigners who obtained the illegal licence with a majority involving Chinese nationals.

Loke said as a step to improve and curb this phenomenon, the RTD would fine-tune the conversion method of foreign driving licence to Malaysian driving licence as well as to consider the recognition method of foreign driving licences.

- Bernama