Police judges in Belgium will soon be required to confiscate the cars of those who drive without a valid driving licence, as the Chamber Committee on Mobility approved a bill last week.
The law needs to be approved by the Federal Parliament, but is expected to be introduced this year. As soon as the law comes into force, the court will be obliged to order the confiscation of the car. In practice, this means that if a car is seized by the authorities, the Federal Public Service of Belgium can sell it publicly.
"With this law, we make it clear that we no longer accept antisocial behaviour that endangers the safety of others. Anyone who has been imposed a driving ban is not above the law. No more impunity," said Federal MP Wouter Raskin (N-VA).
Out of 210,000 driver's licences the police have checked from January to September 2025, a driver had an active driving ban in nearly 25,000 cases – which comes down to about 91 cases every day, De Standaard reports. Raskin also referred to the 2019 Vias study on recidivism, which clearly shows that drivers have the highest chance of relapse, even after a ban is imposed.
Siegfried Stallaert, a police judge in Aalst, confirmed on VRT Radio 1 that this happens often. She stressed that driving without a valid licence is rarely the only offence of those who get caught.
"It is striking to observe that people who are subject to a driving ban also usually manage to draw attention to themselves, either through irresponsible driving behaviour, or by taking to the road in cars that are not technically roadworthy, or by driving around with a false licence plate, and so on," he said.
Possible exceptions
The law is aimed at "cowboys" who are insensitive to classic punishments, allowing judges to spare others from unreasonably severe punishments, Raskin said. However, for every exception, the court will have to explain its reasoning, such as a medical condition or a medical emergency.
Raskin also acknowledged that the law is "not a miracle solution," adding that offenders who do not own the car in question escape the forfeiture. However, people who knowingly provide their car to someone with no valid license also risk losing it.
According to police judge Stallaert, this can cause issues for car rental companies.
As an alternative solution to the ownership requirement, he suggested that the authorities could confiscate a monetary equivalent of the car in which the offence was committed, instead of the car itself.
The bill gained sufficient support from both Vooruit (Flemish socialists) and CD&V (Flemish Christian Democrats). "You can't be strict enough for traffic criminals," said Vooruit faction leader Oskar Seuntjens.
Flemish far-right party Vlaams Belang abstained, arguing that the proposal changes little. "Police judges can already confiscate an offender's vehicle, which they also do," said Vlaams Belang MP Frank Troosters.
Still, Raskin stressed that the law would send a strong signal to traffic criminals. "Their toy can be taken away," he said.
