... and guess what, he's a privately educated solicitor!
  • Simon Button is the man behind the rip-off 'DVLA Licence Apply' website
  • He charges £91.60 for providing a licence - but it costs £34 from the DVLA
  • City Editor Alex Brummer among those who mistook it for the official site
The homepage of the DVLA Licence Apply website features a rather amateurish logo depicting two hands clutching a steering wheel. It then lists its services, which include providing a provisional licence for £91.60 and replacing a lost, stolen or damaged one for £77.60, each next to an inviting blue button that says 'Apply Now'. Given that the same products are available for £34 and £20 respectively from the official DVLA website, it is difficult to know why you would.

Nor is it easy to find out what you actually get for paying more than three times the necessary price, because the website's telephone line has been down for weeks, if not more, and repeated emails to its customer support team go unanswered. Last week Money Mail revealed how the company paid to appear at the top of Google searches for terms such as 'replacement driving licence' and 'driving licence apply' — and above Government websites. It meant that people in a rush, including the Mail's City Editor Alex Brummer, were mistaking the website for the actual DVLA page and paying hefty fees unnecessarily.

Source: This is Money