Brittany man held ‘ghost driving licence’ for 30 years
Here is how to avoid the ‘nonexistent licence’ issue
Rarely, an old-style pink French driving licence was missed in the digitisation process
RVillalon/Shutterstock
A Brittany man has discovered that he ‘does not exist’ on the French national driving licence register, despite holding what he believed to be a valid paper licence dating back to 1978.
The driver, named as Philippe in French media reports of his story, had held a pink paper driving licence for almost 50 years. Yet, when Philippe, from Finistère, was fined for a small speeding offence in 2024, and attempted to pay online, he discovered that his details could not be found.
His licence did not exist on the Agence nationale des titres sécurisés (ANTS, national driving licence database). And yet, he had been issued his paper ‘Permis B’ in 1978, having successfully passed his driving test then.
Philippe, who lived in Sarthe before moving to Finistère, had had his paper licence checked by police at the roadside several times over the decades, without any issues. But when he was caught speeding (at 120 kp/h on a 110 kp/h road) on August 17, 2024, he could find “no trace of my licence on any database”, he told Midi Libre.
A ‘ghost’ licence for 30 years
The issue was found to date back to the digitisation of old paper licences that happened in the 1990s and early 2000s. Some licences were accidentally missed off the list, and were never digitised.
As a result, as far as the digital system is concerned, they do not exist. These licences have now become known as ‘ghost licences’ ('permis fantômes’). Philippe’s licence had been missed in the digitisation, and had therefore been legally ‘non-existent’ for three decades.
And while Philippe was pleased to discover that he had not lost any points from his licence as a result of his speeding infraction (because the licence technically did not exist), he still sought to rectify the issue.
Yet, it has become a bureaucratic waiting game. Philippe first raised the problem with the Sarthe prefecture two years ago, and is still waiting for the file to be corrected. The issue seems particularly difficult to rectify, because it technically requires editing a file that does not exist in the first place.
Philippe is not the only person to have encountered this problem; in fact, it appears to be most common among people who were issued a pink paper licence before 1996.
One woman who lives in Nancy, Nelly Clerget, told specialist magazine AutoJournal that she had discovered that her licence was considered to be ‘pending examination (en attente d’examen)’, even though she said she passed her test in 2011.
And in 1999, an Yvelines woman discovered that she had also been driving on a ‘ghost licence’, as a result of her paper copy – which had been issued 28 years previously – never having been digitised.
How can I check that my licence is digitised and valid?
If you have an old paper licence, it is a good idea to check that your record exists online, to avoid ending up in the same legal stalemate as Philippe, or worse.
ANTS recommends the following steps:
Other signs that your licence may not be digitised or recorded properly include:
No points deductions recorded, even though you have received speeding tickets previously
Continued inability to access your full record online
A message from a prefecture or ANTS stating that no licence is linked to your identity.
If you believe that you may be affected, you are advised to:
Gather as much evidence as you can to prove your right to drive. This includes a copy of your pink paper licence, driving school certificates, old insurance policies and speeding ticket letters that show your licence number, etc.
Contact ANTS and the prefecture, and/or your nearest Centre d’expertise et de ressources des titres (CERT).
It is important to ensure that your records are correct and up-to-date, because in the event of a thorough check or a traffic accident, law enforcement officers and insurers will consult the national records to help determine your identity and legal driving status.
Any irregularity could cause delays or confusion, and even lead to you being accused of driving without a licence or insurance, which are offences punished by up to a year in prison and a fine of €15,000; or a fine of €3,750, a driving course, and the confiscation of your vehicle, respectively.
