Usually, foreign nationals caught committing driving-related offences by authorities have gotten nabbed for driving without a valid licence or road tax and insurance, as well as for technical offences such as unauthorised vehicle modifications, but the road transport department (JPJ) says it has detected instances of foreign drivers using local driving licences.
According to the department’s deputy director-general (management and operations), Datuk Jazmanie Shafawi, these offences were recorded across all states during nationwide operations, as the New Straits Times reports.
He said that some of the foreign drivers involved were United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) cardholders. “JPJ has been working closely with the immigration department to enforce against foreign drivers using local licences,” he said. It was not disclosed how many cases there were and if the local driving licences were original or lesen terbang.
Enforcement against foreign drivers has certainly been there. Earlier this month, it was reported that the department issued 482,742 saman worth RM25.3 million to foreign drivers from 2023 to 2025 for various traffic offences, with most of those fined being Rohingya, Bangladeshi, Indonesian, Middle Eastern, Indian and Chinese nationals. Vehicles have also been seized, with over 15,700 such cases recorded during the period.
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