Around 360,000 British expats who are registered as living in Spain will see a crack down by the police at the end of October as they will have to have changed their UK licence to a Spanish one.
A British councillor who lives on the Costa Del Sol warned that he believes the Spanish authorities will “come down heavy” on British expats who have not yet changed their licence.
Any British expat who did not register with the authorities to change their licence before 30 December 2020 will be subjected to the same rights as non-EU residents.
British expats who are registered as living in Spain and have been for more than six months are legally required to take a Spanish driving test to get their divers licence, but after the 31 October deadline British licences will not be valid for expats.
There are possibly hundreds of thousands of Brits living in Spain who are not registered to legally live in the country who will face problems when they are stopped by the police.
British councillor Bill Anderson told the Express.co.uk that Brits who do live in country that with less than two weeks before the deadline and have not exchanged their licence there will be consequences for them.
Bill told the Express.co.uk, “Basically, their right to drive will disappear.
“I think that anybody getting stopped after the end of this month with a British licence will feel the pinch of it really.
“Because it should have been changed when we became residents. Nobody bothered about it.”
He added, “British licences are only going to be valid until the end of this month, October.
“And, if they haven’t got their application in to exchange their licences, then they’re going to have serious problems.
“They’re not going to be able to drive down here, and they will be checking that.
“I know as well, anecdotally, that they are checking out for British-registered vehicles.
“People would come here and spend as much time as they wanted because nobody checked it.
“And they’d bring their car down with them and it would be six, seven, eight months maybe in a year.
“My understanding is that they are checking up on British-registered vehicles.
“And it will be up to the owner of the vehicle to demonstrate how long it’s been registered here, not up to the Guardia Civil to prove that they’ve been here over the time allocated.”
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