Driving offence?

[1886]

Hi, a bit of background first and thank you to anybody who takes the time to read this through. It might get confusing

A friend at work has been stopped by the Police and charged with two driving offences. She is Romanian and has a full Romanian driving licence, she's been in the UK for roughly two years.

She does'nt speak brilliant English but from what I can gather from talking to her, and she's also given me the letter from the Police, she applied for a UK provisional licence some time last year which is still valid.

I think she applied for the UK provisional licence because she was'nt sure if she was legally allowed to drive on just the Romanian licence. I had a look online earlier and found some conflicting results, one site said that you should change your EU licence for a UK licence after twelve months.

Now to the offences.

1. Using a motor vehicle on a road/public place without third party insurance

2. Drive a motor vehicle otherwise than in accordance with a licence - endorsable offence

A photocopy of the officers report is included and states "The driver gave us a Romanian licence to get details off. On checking the PNC she was also showing a valid UK Provisional licence, due to this she was issued with a TOR for both offences"

She thought she was on a friend's Trader's policy with regards to the insurance, I think that one she'll just have to accept. But, I think that the reason the Police pulled her for not having the correct licence to drive with is because of this valid UK Provisional she had applied for. She was'nt being supervised or displaying L plates. So although she had a Romanian licence the UKP has kind of made that irrelevant?

I did suggest to her ringing the DVLA and asking about the licence but I don't think she would understand them too well.

Opinions please, I'm just kind of reading between the lines, I might be wrong but I think the fact she had a UKP and was'nt being supervised is where the offence has came from. I certainly did'nt know that it would trump having a full licence in another EU country once you've applied for it, the full licence has basically been wiped out. She drives to work everyday so that's still probably not legal, I guess she should cancel the UKP

Is it worth saying not guilty to the licence offence and explaining that she did'nt realise she has to abide by UKP licence rules even though she had a full Romanian licence?

Thanks

[1886]

Thank you for all of the replies. I think I'm just going to direct her to the local citizens advice bureau as like Ashleyman said, I don't really want to get involved in this which is very true

I'll let you know what happens and no she is'nt particularly hot lol, I was just trying to help her as she was quite worried about possibly having to go to court