MIA employee sentenced to 2½ years for forged driving licences
Court in Skopje handed prison terms after guilty pleas; investigation covers 27 people and several accused used false licences for international transport.
A civil servant at the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has been sentenced to two years and six months in prison after admitting guilt in a case about forged driving licences, the Basic Criminal Court in Skopje announced. Two other defendants who pleaded guilty in a shortened procedure received sentences of one year and three months each; pre-trial detention for all three was extended.
State investigation covers dozens of people
The case concerns illegal additions of licence categories to already-submitted driving licence applications, their issuance and subsequent use. According to court statements, prosecutors filed the indictment on 19 September 2026 under the criminal offence “Forgery of a document”, punishable under Article 378(3) in relation to paragraph (1). The investigation involves 27 individuals; indictments have been brought against six people while evidence is still being collected for the remaining 21.
Prosecutors say the first accused, an MIA employee, used her official credentials and access to the computer system over an extended period — from 3 September 2020 to 24 August 2026 — to alter submitted applications by entering additional driving categories. As a result, five other defendants obtained licences for categories they had not passed.
Those five used the false licences when applying for a professional driver certificate for international carriage of passengers and goods issued by the Ministry of Transport and Communications, and prosecutors say some of them then used those documents to transport passengers and cargo across state borders. Three other accused named in the investigation are currently unavailable to law enforcement.
Authorities have opened disciplinary proceedings against the MIA employee and she has been suspended from her post while the criminal investigation continues.
"This action was carried out against 27 people. According to the information I have, there are good statements from some of the people involved in this procedure," said Panche Toshkovski, Minister of Internal Affairs.
Photo: U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Makenna Tilton / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
