Yes, asking for a friend and his European/ UK license has matured in January 2020.
How does one apply for a new license and he has been in Thailand for 12 years and might be going on holiday to the UK later on this yeAR.
tHANKS ALL

Legally the address on your UK driving license should be your permanent residence address and this has to be in the UK, so technically your friend cannot renew his UK license.

 

The correct thing to do is to convert the UK license to a Thai license and use that when driving in the UK, but most people use a friends/relatives address & complete the application online then either get the forms posted to them, sign the forms when they're next in the UK or simply get a friend to forge their signature.

 

Technically if your friend were to have an accident or get pulled over by the police and it was discovered that the address on his license was invalid then this would be an offence & his insurance company may well not pay out. 

 

FWIW my license expired December 2013 & I chose not to lie to a government agency whilst arguing with another government agency that I was no longer resident in the UK (for Tax reasons), as I was living in Singapore at that time (& now in Bangkok) there was no need for a car/license, but now I'm looking to move somewhere where a car might come in handy, I'll be going down the Thai driving license route (this has the additional benefit of being a valid ID you can use instead of your passport in some scenarios). 

 

 

P.S. If you're friend has been living in Thailand for 12 years then he must have renewed his UK license before as they're only valid for 10 years, what did he do last time?