BEWARE THE POWER OF THE PRESS
Many PHTM readers who might be reading this article will have experienced the dev- astating effects of having been the victim of false allegations, especially if the out- come is publicised in the press.
This can happen to those “on the other side of the desk” as well – that is to say, to licens- ing and enforcement officers. One such officer’s life was turned upside down in this way: 44-year-old Wajed Iqbal from Nelson has suffered nearly four years of purgatory as a result of a report in the Mail on Sunday, by David Rose published on 17 May 2017.
Entitled “Scandal of the minicab predators”, the Sunday Mail article highlighted the story of Leyland driver John O’Sullivan, who was convicted and fined in 2013 of assaulting an autistic 13-year-old boy, tying him up with bungee cords when he took him to his special school. Despite this conviction O’Sullivan’s taxi licence was renewed twice by South Rib- ble District Council, and he was still on the road at the time the MoS article was pub- lished. (His licence has since been revoked.)
The report stated that South Ribble Council had “gone into meltdown” and investiga- tions were underway; high-ranking officers resigned, the background was subsequently leaked to the press. You may remember the situation in South Ribble; we highlighted it in PHTM at the time.
CHARACTER ASSASSINATION
The Mail on Sunday article went on to say that their investigation revealed that “a licensing officer at the heart of the scandal, Wajed Iqbal, had earlier spent 11 years licensing taxis in Rochdale – at a time when some local drivers were raping underage girls as members of paedophile rings. Four were later jailed for their crimes.”
Further, Rose’s article stated that “between working in Rochdale and South Ribble, Mr Iqbal did a licensing job in Leeds, but left after ‘conflict’ with his superiors. He took Leeds City Council to an employment tri- bunal, but his case was dismissed [in 2015].”
The caption under Mr Iqbal’s photograph read: “The fixer: Part-time nightclub bouncer Wajed ‘Da Enforcer’ Iqbal… licensed taxis in Rochdale at a time when drivers were sexu- ally abusing underage girls. He went on to work in South Ribble, where lax criminal record checks saw predators given licences after assaulting children.”
None of these allegations was true. PHTM spoke at length with Mr Iqbal, who told us that the fallout from this defamatory article was totally devastating to him, to his family and his wider community. He decided to sue
44 Wajed Iqbal
the Mail on Sunday, and engaged defama- tion law specialist Mark Lewis of Patron Law, who filed court proceedings for Mr Iqbal in April 2018 - nearly 11 months after the article was published.
Mr Iqbal set out the facts of the matter for PHTM: “I was an enforcement officer at Rochdale when all the scandal broke there. I did on-street enforcement; I was not a licensing officer, and I could not grant – or revoke – licences to anybody. So I did not ‘spend 11 years licensing taxis’. The assump- tion was made that because I was a Pakistani Muslim, I was somehow involved in ‘fixing’ licences for these drivers from the same background.
“I remember from some of the pre-court preparation discussions that it was comment- ed that I drove a BMW at the time of the investigations at Rochdale… how could I afford a BMW then; with what source of income? – implying that I was getting back- handers for “fixing” these licences, with which I had no involvement at all. My BMW was sec- ond hand and worth around three grand…”
As for the reference to Mr Iqbal’s “conflict with his superiors” in Leeds, it had nothing to do with any disciplinary action being taken against Mr Iqbal about his work. “I was a union steward at the time, and my col- leagues and I were unhappy about the current wage structure. We took the council to tribunal over this issue but the case was dismissed as being out of time.”
THE HEADLINE GRABBER
With reference to John O’Sullivan’s criminal activity and the fact that he was allowed to continue to hold a licence in South Ribble, Mr Iqbal sets out the facts of the matter: “O’Sullivan was done merely for common assault against that boy, and fined £90. I couldn’t believe it at the time. But the thing
is, O’Sullivan was dealt with prior to my starting work at South Ribble. It was the licensing committee who allowed O’Sullivan to retain his licence, and so when I started work there and queried this decision, I couldn’t take him back in front of Commit- tee a second time for the same crime.”
We asked if the South Ribble licensing department had delegated powers. “No – that’s the problem. We couldn’t take a deci- sion on this guy’s licence, or anybody else’s for that matter. And unfortunately the com- mittee was very weak at the time; there was no consistency to their decisions.”
There’s more: The court statement issued in the High Court which has agreed an out-of- court settlement states that “The article also alleged that the Claimant was given a warn- ing by his employer South Ribble Borough Council for alleged deficiencies in his work- ing practices as a licensing officer.” This allegation was also false. However, a month after the Mail on Sunday article was pub- lished, Mr Iqbal’s employment was terminated at the council. He also lost his job with the security company.
Following publication of the story, Mr Iqbal was denounced by members of his own com- munity; he had to put up cameras around his house to avoid attacks. He was banned from seeing his children for over two years.
The court action against the Mail on Sunday has resulted in an out-of-court settlement, and a payment to Mr Iqbal of £180,000. The overall costs of the proceedings, including legal costs for four barristers, has exceeded £1.2 million.
As Mr Iqbal told us: “I am happy with the set- tlement, but my life will never be the same again. I’m back working as a licensing officer at Blackburn, which is great. But I was driven to ruin by the Mail on Sunday’s irresponsible journalism. My reputation in the local Asian Pakistani community was destroyed.
“At least the Mail on Sunday has issued an apology… but it doesn’t undo all the damage that’s been done.”
We asked Mr Iqbal if he had any personal message for PHTM readers: “Don’t trust everything you read at face value; do your own research. The horrendous damage that is done by media hype is unbelievable, and once it’s out there it can’t be deleted like an email or Twitter feed.”
As Mr Iqbal’s barrister Mark Lewis com- mented: “Newspapers have a responsibility to tell the truth to their readers. When truth is the casualty, the subject of the story is the victim.”
MARCH 2020
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