FIT AND PROPER NEARLY £3,000 TO PAY BY UNLICENSED LUTON CABBIE INCLUDING HEAVY FINE AND COSTS
A Luton man has been heavily fined after being caught driving an unlicensed and uninsured taxi. Mohammed Saleem was found guilty at Luton Magistrates Court on March 21 of illegally driving a previously licensed hackney carriage vehicle without the required taxi driver’s badge. He was also found guilty of driving without appropriate insurance.
The court heard that Central Bedfordshire Council’s Taxi Licensing Team received information and photos of a previously licenced hackney carriage parked on the West Street taxi rank in Dunstable. Bedfordshire Police was informed about the vehicle being used as an unlicensed taxi and pulled it over twice in August 2022.
On both occasions, they seized the vehicle as the driver was unable to produce valid insurance. Saleem was given two opportunities to attend a police interview under caution, but did not respond. In his absence at court he was fined £1,100, ordered to pay costs of £1,405 and a victim surcharge of £440, a total of £2,945.
GLASGOW PRIVATE HIRE DRIVER SUSPENDED AFTER PICK UP STORY “DOESN’T ADD UP”
A private hire driver has been suspended after plying for trade, as councillors decided his story about picking up friends after a night out “doesn’t seem to add up”. After bring videoed and reported by a hackney carriage driver who had been approached by the same passengers on Jamaica Street near McDonald’s, Orwa Sulaiman Ibrahim was handed a six-week ban.
Mr Ibrahim claimed he wasn’t working and had been picking up friends after a night out, but councillors on the city’s licensing committee weren’t convinced. The hackney driver reported that he had been flagged down by a couple who “came up to me asking a price to Paisley”
in
October last year. “They said ‘this private hire in front of you wants £35 cash, can you beat this quote?’ “I said he’s not allowed to pick you up without booking. They left and went to him, sat in his private hire car and drove off.”
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During an interview with enforcement officers in November last year, Mr Ibrahim said: “I don’t remember this particular incident but I can tell you that I usually do not work nights on weekends.” This was due to “a few bad experiences in the past with drunk customers”, he added. “I like to go out with my
friends on the
weekend and because I only have one vehicle, I always drive my private hire car. “I can take my friends home as it is difficult for them to get a taxi home. I can only assume that’s what happened on this occasion and the taxi driver got the wrong idea.” Cllr Alex Wilson, who chairs the licensing committee, quizzed the driver on his memory of the night. Mr Ibrahim said: “It’s just not that day specifically because I always pick them [his friends] up.” Cllr Wilson then said the driver hadn’t mentioned he had been clubbing, then to McDonald’s and picked up his friend. “That’s what
should have been in this
statement if it is true,” he added. Mr Ibrahim’s representative said if the committee decided his client was guilty then it was his first offence and he had never previously breached his licence conditions. Cllr Thomas Kerr said: “It seems a tad convenient that when you were asked about this from our enforcement team, it was ‘I don’t remember’ and the day you come before this committee, you now remember it was a friend and your friend is able to provide written evidence saying ‘yes it was me’. “This happened last year so what happened in between then for you to remember it was your friend? It doesn’t seem to
add up
whatsoever for me.” Cllr Wilson added: “There’s a lot of things that just don’t seem to add up in this. “I can’t understand why a hackney driver would possibly say they approached him and then got into your car.”
MAY 2023 PHTM
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