Authority warns against driving unlicensed vehicles |30 August 2004

The appeal comes in the wake of a noticeable rise in the number of unlicensed vehicles being driven on the roads.

According to the SLA road licenses for an average of 200 vehicles expire every month without being renewed.

Senior licensing officer Flazia Contoret said estimates place the number of unlicensed vehicles in Seychelles at around 4,000.

The SLA said that in some cases the owner of such vehicles inform the authority that their vehicles are in garages being repaired or awaiting spares, but it is believed that a certain number of these vehicles are being driven without a valid licence.

This, according to Inspector Antoine Desnousse of the police, is an offence that can lead to a fine – in most cases exceeding R1,000 – as well as a potential one-year suspension of the offender’s driving license.

While police are carrying out checks and offenders are being taken to court, “it should be noted that driving without a valid road licence invalidates the insurance cover of the vehicles. This has serious consequences in case of an accident,” SLA managing director Errol Dias wrote in a press release.