FIT AND PROPER
WALSALL PRIVATE HIRE DRIVER FINED FOR UNLAWFULLY PLYING
A private hire driver who unlawfully plied for trade in Walsall while he was unin- sured has been hit with a £1,380 court bill and given six points on his licence. According to the Birm- ingham Mail, Moham-
med Kasim from Darl- ston admitted plying for hire and having no insurance when he appeared at Walsall Magistrates’ Court. The 28-year-old was caught on Walsall Road, Darlaston, last September by Walsall
Council’s licensing
enforcement officers who were conducting a borough-wide clamp- down on illegal plying for hire. The court heard Kasim agreed to take the officers on an unbooked
journey contrary to regulations.
WARNING OVER CHARGING HIGH TAXI FARES IN DURHAM
A council has warned it will take action against cheating taxi drivers, after two cabbies were fined for overcharging passengers. The drivers both admitted
wrongly
charging passengers - who were council offi- cers - at a rate that only applies after 10pm,
for journeys
across Durham City. According to the Northern Echo,
the
charges resulted from an
operation by
Durham County Coun- cil after complaints from residents and taxi firms that some drivers were refusing to make short
One was fined £55 and the other £110. Both said their meters were on the incorrect tariff by mistake. Mmmm....Possibly the tip of the iceberg, fol- lowing
last journeys and
were charging more than the permitted fare.
Sep-
tember’s de-zoning and the subsequent flood of taxis into Durham from all parts of the UA. Told you so - ?! Ed.
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PAGE 40
A cabbie has been banned from driving for six months after being found guilty of using a mobile phone while driving. The driver pleaded not guilty to the offence in Vaughan Way, Leices- ter, on November 1. However, he was con- victed at Leicester Magistrates’ Court and fined £75, with £75 costs and a £15 victims of crime surcharge. Because three penalty points imposed on his licence took the total to 15, magistrates had to disqualify him from driving all vehicles for six months. He had previously claimed - in October 2010 - that being dis- qualified from driving would cause him exceptional hardship due to loss of employ- ment, so this option was not available to
him a second time. Prosecutor Ian John- son said police saw the driver holding a mobile phone to his right ear at 3.05am. Mr Johnson told the Leicester Mercury: “He told the officer who cautioned him that he was phoning a customer but was not driving. He said he had been parked.” PC Lee Eckersley told the court that street lighting made vision clear and there was nothing between his car and the driver. “He was using a hand- held mobile phone as the taxi was driven towards me,” he said. “Throughout the jour- ney he had his hand to his ear.” A taxi driver for six years, he said at the time of the offence, he had been asked to pick up a fare from outside
Liquid Envy nightclub. He maintained that he made a phone call to check whether
the
woman he was due to collect was still there. He said he saw the police car coming towards Church Gate from Vaughan Way, and was waiting for the traffic lights to change. He said: “I was station- ary. The police vehicle passed me. I had no reason at all to use my mobile phone when I was driving.” After sentencing, his solicitor, David Rhodes, said the six-month ban would have a devastat- ing effect on the driver and his family. Mmmm...We have run this in case any read- ers still use hand-held mobiles on the basis that the fine is minimal. The points, however, may not be. - Ed.
ORPINGTON DRIVER LOSES TAXI LICENCE AFTER BRAWL
An Orpington cab driv- er has had his licence suspended following a brawl at a taxi rank. The suspension came into
effect after
Andrew Badger, 55, got into an argument with another taxi driver, Mohammed Jabbar, 37, outside Sevenoaks train station on May 16 last year. Sevenoaks District Council’s member for licensing Cllr Elaine Bracken told the
Bromley Times: “We have a duty to protect the travelling public and we will use our powers to ensure driv- ers and operators meet the standards of conduct set out in law. “This particular inci- dent would have been distressing for
the
public and is not the sort of behaviour we would expect
from
drivers providing a public service.” Both drivers attended a
misconduct hearing on October 26 and the licensing committee decided it would be appropriate to suspend Mr Badger’s hackney carriage licence for six months and Mr Jab- bar’s for nine months. The council’s decision was appealed to Sevenoaks
Mag-
istrates’ Courts and there was a subse- quent hearing on April 4 when the original decision was upheld.
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