On her fourth attempt at the driving test, Maria Schiave – an elderly woman in the small town of Novo Mutum Paraná in the Brazilian Amazon – arrived two hours late.

The other candidates had already completed their attempts at parallel parking, and examiners were about to take them out on the road when Dona Maria finally appeared.

But something was wrong.

“I sensed a certain nervousness from the school’s owner,” driving test examiner Aline Mendonça, 38, told the Guardian. “He said, ‘We have a problem.’”

Mendonça couldn’t believe what she saw. “It was a guy with a long outfit, heavily made-up. It did not look like a woman,” she said.

The man was carrying a handbag, and wore a long skirt, a floral top, earrings and a stuffed bra. He had even painted his nails. “I couldn’t believe it,” Mendonça said. “It was surreal.”

Drive, she said. Photograph: Brazilian police

Mendonça, a driving test examiner for 12 years, kept her cool. She told a colleague to tell the police, asked “Dona Maria” for her ID, and let the impostor start the parking test.

When police arrived, “Dona Maria” got out of the car and walked away but police soon caught up. Under the makeup was Maria’s son, Heitor Márcio Schiave, 43, a mechanic.

He was arrested for fraudulent misrepresentation, said the officer who arrested him. “He said he was doing the driving test for his mother – and his mother did not know,” the officer said.

The G1 news site, which first reported the story, said Schiave has since been released. Police said he will probably face a fine.

“We got a lot of criticism – ‘Oh the son did it for the love of the mother.’ But what if there was an accident or someone died?” Mendonça said. “You have to earn your pass – the driving test is serious.”

Judging by his performance in the parking test, it was unlikely Heitor Márcio would have secured a licence for his mother, she said.

Even if the fake “Dona Maria” had managed to take the test undetected, “she would have failed just the same”.