SHAME SHAME
BURNLEY TAXI DRIVER CONVICTED OF MAKING A FALSE STATEMENT IN ORDER TO OBTAIN LICENCE
A taxi driver from Burnley has been convicted of making a false statement in order to obtain a licence. On June 28 2022, Zaheer Abbas, applied for a PH and HC driver’s
licence from Chorley
Council, declaring he’d never been convicted of an offence or had a licence revoked by another council. In fact, he’d been convicted by Manchester Magistrates’ Court in 2017 for an offence of unlawfully plying for hire. Following this, he had his HC driver licence revoked
by Rossendale Borough Council. This dishonesty was identified by Chorley Council officers during licensing checks and an investig- ation was launched with Abbas withdrawing his application for a licence shortly after. Abbas, 41, was invited to explain his actions several times, confirming to officers he was going to attend an interview under caution before then failing to attend. His actions generated hundreds of pounds in interpreter costs.
The council decided to charge Abbas for an offence contrary to Section 57 of the LGMPA 1976. Abbas pleaded guilty to this offence but requested a court hearing to mitigate the sentence. Following a hearing at Blackpool Magistrates’ Court on March 8, Abbas was convicted of the offence and sentenced to a fine of £120, reduced to £80 due to his early guilty plea and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £32 and the council’s costs of £539.
TEN YEARS’ SENTENCE FOR BELFAST CABBIE FOUND GUILTY OF RAPING INTOXICATED YOUNG WOMAN
An impotent taxi driver who raped a vulnerable young woman after picking her up from a nightclub has been handed a ten-year sentence. Michael Harte preyed on his drunk victim in Belfast city centre before taking her to a quiet nearby road and raping her. Harte from west Belfast, tried to hide his number plate and lied to the victim about the firm he worked for in an attempt to evade justice but was jailed for the attack at Dungannon Crown Court in March. Judge Richard Greene KC branded him a liar who had deliberately gone looking for an intoxicated young woman to victimise. “It would have been obvious to you that she was very vulnerable and you formed the intent to rape her shortly thereafter,’’ he said. “She was at your mercy and you carefully planned where and how you were going to attack her, you
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parked up in a back street off the main road and committed this appalling sexual assault on her. “It is clear the impact on the victim has been profound.” The court heard how the victim returned home from her night out in October 2016 in “quite a distressed state” with friends sensing something was wrong. She told her pals she had got into a taxi and was in it for a “long period of time” and thought something had happened but was “too drunk” to remember. In interview, the victim said she remembered “being touched and felt someone on top of her”, adding: “I do feel like I’ve had sex”. Harte denied raping her and insisted he had “reluctantly” given the victim a lift home, but this was rejected by the jury. Lawyers for Harte told the court in mitigation their client is “unwell”
and suffers from high cholesterol, high blood pressure, back pain, type 2 diabetes and asthma as well as erectile dysfunction. Incredibly, they also sought to play down his offending by insisting his erectile dysfunction would make him less likely to commit similar crimes in the future. Referring to the victim personal statement, the judge said the victim may never recover from her ordeal and ordered Harte to spend five years behind bars followed by five on licence. “You continue to deny your guilt and therefore lack remorse, you thought you could sexually assault her and she would not be able to recollect the events and hold you to account for your crime,” he said. Harte was also ordered to sign the sex offenders register for life and was slapped with a sexual offences prevention order for ten years.
APRIL 2023 PHTM
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