The state suffered millions of losses: the director of the driving school is suspected of embezzling funds from state vouchers

Law enforcement agencies discovered abuse by the 52-year-old head of a driving school in the Kupyan district, who illegally appropriated significant funds from the state budget, allocated for the training of citizens using vouchers from the Kharkiv Regional Employment Center.

As it became known, during the investigation it was found that from October 2025 to January 2026, this person entered into false agreements for the training of people who received vouchers for training for category “C” drivers. However, she was aware that her institution had not passed the mandatory re-certification and actually did not have the trucks necessary for teaching.

Due to the active hostilities in the Kupyan district, it was impossible to conduct training at the driving school, and no group of trainees was registered. Despite this, the director falsified documents indicating that all participants had successfully completed training and received driver’s licenses. Thus, she managed to “train” 72 drivers.

Based on false reports, she submitted requests to the Kharkiv Regional Employment Center, as a result of which more than 2.1 million hryvnias were transferred to the account of the driving school for services that were not actually provided.

Since June 2023, the director of the employment center has been Oleksandr Kotukov, who currently holds the position of director of the Kharkiv Center for Vocational and Technical Education.

As part of the proceedings overseen by the New Bavarian District Prosecutor’s Office, the principals of the driving school announced suspicion of misappropriating someone else’s property by abusing their official position during martial law, which is subject to special circumstances (Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). Currently, the issue of a preventive measure in the form of detention is being resolved.

The pre-trial investigation is ongoing, it is being conducted by investigators from the local police department with the support of employees of the Security Service of Ukraine.