FIT AND PROPER
CABBIE COVERED NUMBER PLATE WITH PAPER AT BELFAST AIRPORT TO AVOID PAYING PARKING FEE
A cabbie who covered up his vehicle’s front number plate with paper and failed to pay the full fee at the drop-off zone at Belfast International Airport has been fined £200. Philip Stephen Clarke, 33, of Lisburn, committed the offence on November 28 last year. At Antrim Magistrates’ Court, he admitted charges of obscuring his number plate and making off without paying £35 of a £36 parking fee. A prosecutor said police received a
report from the car park office at the airport that a member of the public saw a taxi driver in the drop- off zone covering his front number plate before driving out. Police viewed CCTV which showed the defendant arrived in the drop-off zone at 9.20am and left at 11.10am. “Before exiting the drop-off zone the defendant partially covered the front number plate with white paper, thus obscuring part of it,” a prosecutor said. The court heard the defendant then paid £1 at the barrier and
outside he then “removed the pieces of white paper to reveal the full registration plate”. The full amount the defendant should have paid was £36. The defendant said he had paid back the money. District Judge Nigel Broderick told the defendant: “You have been very foolish. You have placed your livelihood in jeopardy. There is an element of deception involved in this. You put a bit of thought into it. It wasn’t as if you were left without money.”
NINE YORK TAXI DRIVERS HAVE HAD THEIR LICENCES REVOKED IN 2023
Nine York taxi drivers had their licences revoked in 2023. A report was presented to City of York Council licensing and regulatory committee on October 11. It showed that 12 licences were revoked in 2022, and four were refused, with reasons quoted as dishonesty, violence, sexual, driving,
inappropriate conduct and medical. Between January 1, 2023, and September 1, 2023, five drivers had licences revoked for their driving, three for inappropriate conduct and one under the ‘sexual’ category. Dave
Kelway, taxi licensing
manager for the council, said the ‘sexual category’ could include
TORFAEN PH DRIVER FINED £100 FOR SMOKING IN VEHICLE
A Torfaen private hire driver has been fined £100 for smoking in his vehicle. He paid the fixed penalty notice after the council’s licensing team received a complaint that he was smoking in his licensed PHV. A council report into the licensing team’s work from April 2023 to the end of June 2023 said: “Under the Smoke-free Premises and Vehicles (Wales) Regulations 2020 which
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came into force on the 1st March 2021, it is against the law to smoke in a vehicle that carries members of the public, therefore a vehicle licensed for either HC or PH use is designated as a smoke-free premises. A licensed vehicle is a licensed vehicle at all times, irrespective as to whether or not the vehicle is being used for HC or PH purposes.”
“either sexual offences or information in relation to serious sexual inappropriateness”. Mr Kelway said there was a test taxi drivers must take before they can obtain a taxi driving licence in York. “Particular attention is paid to ensuring that all licence holders are ‘fit and proper’ to hold a licence,” he said. “All applicants undertake a DBS check and are also checked against the National Refusal and Revocation, Suspension database. “Applicants must also pass a safeguarding and knowledge test, pass a driving assessment and have less than seven penalty points. In 2022, 12 taxi drivers were also suspended for failing to complete a DBS requirement, this dropped to just two by September 1, 2023. Ten had been suspended for medical reasons already this year, up from six in 2022.
NOVEMBER 2023 PHTM
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