I agree completely, Englishal.
The curious thing is to compare the American way with the European way.
In the USA, you could gain by faking logbook entries because certain solo time is allowed towards e.g. the CPL (or instrument time in the IR). But you have to pass the oral exam plus the checkride, so it actually won't do you any good if you aren't good enough. And the FAA does a lot of enforcement of technical breaches.
In Europe, the pilot is assumed to be a crook by default and no solo time is allowed (except the little bit within the PPL, flown within the flying school and on the instructor's insurance), but there is no oral so in theory you could skip a lot of that stuff and just need to pass the checkride. And the CAA does practically no enforcement of technical breaches.
the copilot never had a licence, but had gone for years bull!!!!ting everyone - and got away with it.
No suprise there. I had an instructor who told everybody he had an ATPL. Totally made up (BCPL only). Mind you, I think those who know the system would realise this, from his logbook signatures - isn't there a different prefix on a CAA instructor #, for an ATP?
Under the FAA system, anybody can check up using the public pilot data website. Quite funny at times what one finds
