Dutch police who arrested a man in connection with a drink-driving incident were surprised to find that the name on his driving licence was Boris Johnson.
The Ukrainian driver’s fake licence, complete with the former British prime minister’s picture and correct birthdate, was purportedly issued in 2019 and valid until the end of the year 3000.
A police spokesperson, Thijs Damstra, said officers investigated an incident shortly after midnight on Sunday when a car crashed into a pole near the Emma Bridge in the northern city of Groningen. The car was abandoned but police were later told that the driver was standing on the bridge.
“The person could not identify himself and refused to undertake a breathalyser test,” Damstra said on Monday. The 35-year-old man, from the small town of Zuidhorn, west of Groningen, was arrested and police searched the car. “Inside, police found a fake driver’s licence belonging to Boris Johnson,” Damstra said.
Groningen police said on their Instagram account: “Unfortunately for this person, we did not fall for his forgery.”
Police could not say where the forged document was made, but Kysia Hekster, a former Russia correspondent for the public broadcaster NOS, said in a tweet published by the NOS that fake driving licences could easily be bought in tourist shops in Ukraine.
Damstra added: “As far as I’m aware, the real Mr Boris Johnson was not in the Netherlands at the time.”