FIT AND PROPER
CAMBRIDGE PH DRIVER WHO LOSES APPEAL OVER LICENCE REVOCATION, ORDERED TO PAY £4,500
A Cambridge PH driver has been ordered to pay £4,500 in legal costs after losing an appeal against the revocation of his licence. Ahmed Al Ansar, 36, had his licence revoked by South Cambs DC in 2021. He had picked up a passenger, also a licensed taxi driver, who reported Ansar for fail- ing to display the required plates and door signs on his vehicle.
Despite claiming an exemption for the missing operator signs, Ansar was unable to provide proof. He also failed to attend police interviews and made a hasty attempt to apply for a private hire licence to cover himself. Ansar appealed the initial revocation as he said it was an accidental pick-up, but lost his first appeal at Cambridge Magistrates
Court in November 2023. A year later on November 1 2024, his second appeal failed in a hearing at Peterborough Crown Court as the court found Ansar’s explanation unconvincing and upheld the council’s decision to revoke his licence. He was ordered to pay costs of £2,551 and a further £1,967 costs were upheld from the first appeal.
A PH driver involved in a road col- lision which injured a pedestrian has received a 12-week suspension. A panel of councillors looked into the alleged ‘misconduct’. Published minutes of Bolton Council licensing panel meeting said: “The committee believes that the driver did collide with a pedestrian in his vehicle based on information from a witness, the
12-WEEK SUSPENSION FOR BOLTON PH DRIVER WHO INJURED PEDESTRIAN AND LIED ABOUT IT to
injured party and the police. “The injured party sustained a fracture which the committee felt was consistent with a vehicle collision and the committee was most concerned with the driver’s honesty and the level to which he had gone to cover up the incident. “The driver provided false inform- ation, failed to comply with the conditions of his licence and failed
inform the council of the incident within 72 hours.” The panel was told of the driver’s incident free 20 years of driving. A motion to revoke the taxi driver’s licence completely was defeated six votes to three. The report, added: “The committee did not wish to revoke the driver’s licences entirely but rather sanction for the collision, dishonesty and failure to notify.”
PAIR CONVICTED OF SCAM PH OPERATION AFTER PROSECUTION BY LICHFIELD COUNCIL
Two Burntwood men have been prosecuted by Lichfield DC after licensing officers caught them running a scam private hire operation. In January 2024 licensing officers stopped a vehicle in Burntwood and found a vulnerable passenger and the carer had been duped into believing it was a genuine PHV. The vehicle was uninsured, and neither the car nor the driver held private hire/vehicle licences. The
26
subsequent investigation discov- ered that BP Cars, an operator licensed by the council, knowingly passed jobs to the driver. In order to protect the public, licensing officers immediately sus- pended the PH operator licence held by BP Cars. The operator was then called before the council’s licensing committee where councillors revoked the licence. On 5 November 2024 both the driver and the operator appeared
at Cannock Magistrates’ Court and pleaded guilty to licensing, fraud and driving offences. The driver, Craig Matthews, 54, was given 6 points on his driving licence, a 12 month conditional discharge, ordered to pay £100 costs and a £26 victim surcharge. The operator, Brian Peasley, 77, trading as BP Cars, was also given a 12 month conditional discharge, ordered to pay £100 costs a victim surcharge of £26.
DECEMBER 2024 PHTM
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74
