Issue - meetings

The Driver was in attendance.

The Witness, CEO 2, was in attendance.

The Neighbourhood Enforcement Officer introduced the report and drew attention to the following:

·         The Neighbourhood Enforcement Team (NET) had carried out an investigation following an allegation about the Driver by a Civil Enforcement Officer (CEO) in August 2019;

·         The Driver held a  Private Hire Driver’s licence since 2014  and the current licence was due to expire in August 2020;

·         On the 6 August 2019, an email was received by the NET from the Witness, CEO 2;

·         The Witness alleged the Driver objected to being issued with a ticket; grabbed CEO 1; obstructed both CEOs and called them “terrorists”;

·         CEO 1 called the police and an audio recording of the call was available for the Committee to hear;

·         CEO 1 was not able to attend the meeting to give a witness statement due to family circumstances;

·         The NET had awaited the outcome of a police investigation before deciding on a course of action;

·         The Licence Holder was bailed pending further inquiries and following these inquiries, no further action was taken by the police;

·         The police had taken the view that it was not possible to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the assault had happened due to a lack of independent witnesses;

·         The Committee was asked to make a decision as to whether the Driver was a fit and proper person, on the balance of probabilities, after considering the evidence of both parties.

The Committee listened to the audio recording of the CEO call to the police

The Witness, CEO 2, gave the following evidence:

·         She had dropped off CEO 1 to check for cars parked illegally while she parked her car in a car park;

·         She drove back to the scene on hearing shouting and she saw the driver grab CEO 1’s arm and push him into the wall and grab his hand as he was trying to take photographs of the illegally parked taxi;

·         She told CEO to stop taking photographs and get in her car;

·         The Driver refused to move from the front of their car;

·         Another driver intervened and advised him to let her move the car and park properly so she was not obstructing the road and at this point the Driver allowed her to move the vehicle and park safely.

In response to questions the Witness confirmed:

·         She was CEO 1’s Supervisor and was working alongside him on the day in question;

·         CEO 1 had found the taxi parked on double yellow lines with passengers but no driver;

·         She understood the passengers were the Driver’s family and that the children had started crying when their mother had left the vehicle to find her husband;

·         There was a 5 minute countdown before a ticket was issued after entering a vehicle’s registration number.  If a driver returned to their vehicle and could prove they had been loading/unloading the ticket could be cancelled, but once the 5 minute period had passed, a ticket would be issued and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 31