Unknowingly committed a crime related to my driving license. What can I do now?
I know I'm going to get torn to pieces, so before I say anything, I want to make something extremely clear: I HAVE NEVER USED AND I AM NOT PLANNING TO USE MY LICENSE. Not in Germany, not in ANY other country, including my own.
Hi dear r/germany,
So as the title says, I've committed Führerscheintourismus. I know it's no excuse, but I wasn't even aware of the fact that this is a thing. I have never even looked up the EU law about this, and now I'm in trouble and looking for advice on what to do. This is the timeline of events, as they happened.
2021 April: I have started driving school in my own country (another EU member)
2021 June-July: finished my theory test and moved to Germany, thinking that I'll just do the driving classes in my vacation time. I didn't know that it was illegal.
2023 July: life got in the way, so I have completed my classes and the final test just before the 2-year expiration period and received my license.
The thing is, people only told me after the fact that I literally committed a serious crime and if I ever try to drive with my license in Germany, I will get a year of prison time along with a hefty fine (1k+ euros).
So right now I have a useless driving license, but the real problem is that in my country, there's literally no legal way to get rid of it. I cannot "give back" my driving license, which means I cannot start a German driving school to obtain a legal license the right way, meaning I will never be able to drive here legally.
My workplace is running out of patience and they really want me to drive a company car, so my livelihood is at stake.
Is there any way to solve this, or I should just accept the situation as it is?