A Ukrainian man was caught trying to take a practical driving test on his neighbor’s behalf. When asked why his face didn’t match the one on the ID at all, he claimed his appearance had merely changed since the photo was taken.

We’ve heard of people trying to impersonate others in order to help them pass their driving test, but they usually put a bit of effort into it. We’ve written about someone who paid a body double to take the test on their behalf, and about a man who disguised himself as an old woman to take the driving test in his mother’s place. But then we have the protagonist of today’s news story, a man from Ukraine’s Rivne region who decided to help his neighbor by simply turning up to take the practical test, even though they looked nothing alike.

Photo: Orkun Azap/Unspalsh

“He provided all the necessary documents: a passport of a citizen of Ukraine, an identification code, a medical certificate,” the administrators of the regional testing center said in a statement. “But instead of his own, the man took his neighbor’s documents. He decided to embark on such an adventure because with ‘good intentions’ – to help a friend get a driver’s license.”

All the testing center staff had to do was look at the ID presented by the imposter to immediately tell that his face didn’t match the one on the document. His explanation left them all flabbergasted – he claimed that his face had changed drastically in the last eight years since the ID photo was taken. That argument didn’t really hold water, but examiners were convinced he was an imposter when he couldn’t even tell them the birthdate on ‘his’ ID without looking at it.

“If you looked at the ID, you could instantly tell that the person didn’t look the same,” a spokesperson of the regional Ministry of Internal Affairs said. “When they asked him what year he was born in, he couldn’t even tell them the correct year.”

The Ukrainian man was handed over to the police and now faces a hefty fine for his ‘good deed’.