Parents accuse London, Ont. driving school of taking their cash and disappearing

Some parents in London, Ont. are raising the alarm after a local driving school failed to provide certification for 30 hours of online driving instruction and didn't show up for pre-paid in-person lessons. 

CBC News spoke to two parents who said they found the London Driving School by searching online for driving courses in the city. They both enrolled their teenagers in lessons in August 2021.  

"He now needs to start from square one," said Lina Contreras, who paid $645 for her son's online and in-person lessons by sending an e-transfer in advance to an email on the school's webpage.

She says her son was able to complete a 20-hour online beginner driver education course, followed by 10 hours of miscellaneous questions and quizzes, using a link provided. The driving school said the course material was approved by the province, which parents later discovered did not mean it was certifiable.

Contreras said she didn't realize there was a problem until her son tried to book the full 10-hours of promised driving lessons.

"The office had shut down. There was no one to speak to. The phones were disabled and the website was no longer there," Contreras explains. 

She says when she went to the London Driving School's listed address at Cherryhill Mall, she was met by security guards who said no one had entered the office for months. 

Dorothy Amaral is also out hundreds of dollars after registering her son for driving lessons with the London Driving School. They also never materialized.

She says she read on the website that the school was formerly known as "WesternDrivers.com" and mistook it for the Western Driving Academy, a legitimate school where another one of her children took lessons. 

"It's very upsetting," Amaral said. "They've got all these people's money in their hands, and it's upsetting that people can walk away doing this." 

The Better Business Bureau lists Adam Khan as the principal of the London Driving School. CBC News contacted him by email and he responded Tuesday. 

"I am in Afghanistan," Khan wrote. "I came to take my family members out of Afghanistan, unfortunately, got arrested by the Taliban."

He said he does not have access to his bank accounts but promises to refund people who did not receive training, if they send him their bank details.

Both parents said they would be extremely hesitant to give Khan those details after what's happened.