It is a common stipulation by the finance company that the applicant has a full UK driving licence (although not a legal requirement and so dependent on the lender in question).
This is because, as a rule, they frown on accommodation deals, which is where someone takes out finance on a vehicle which for all intents and purposes is for someone else, simply because all too often, the two people fall out and neither is willing to continue making the repayments.
There is little they can do to stop these kinds of deals, except identify cases where it is obvious that the vehicle is not for the applicant, such as in the case you describe where the applicant can't drive.