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Agenda item
Application for the Renewal of a Private Hire Driver Licence MAK
Minutes:
The Applicant was in attendance.
The Licensing Officer outlined the background to the application as follows:
· The application was seeking the renewal of a Private Hire Driver (PHD) Licence.
· A check carried out following application had shown four penalty points awarded on 15th July 2016.
· The applicant had ticked the box “I confirm that I haven’t received a criminal or driving conviction, caution or reprimand since my last licence was issued (including DVLA points)”.
· Although some other historic convictions were on the license, these were 2014 and prior.
The applicant made the following points in support of his application:
· The four points had been received nearly three years ago.
· He had held his licence since 1984 and had never given the Committee a need to question his conduct.
· The incident had been an unlucky event for which in his opinion he would have not been convicted had there been operational cameras as the traffic lights.
· He had been in his private car at a traffic light to turn right. Two cyclists had been beside his car and as he moved away slowly the cyclist must have stretched out their leg towards the car. He maintained that he did not go over her foot.
· He had chosen not to fight the case as his grandad had been very ill and he was required to go to Pakistan three weeks after the incident. His grandad subsequently passed away and he remained for three and a half months.
· He was not a careless person. He was on the Bristol Safeguarding Children’s Board, a Governor at a school, known to the Mayor and Cabinet Member Councillor Asher Craig. He presented emails of support and references to the Committee. He was the Chairman of Council of Bristol Mosques.
The Licensing Officer and Legal Officer clarified the following:
· An endorsement of four points constituted a major traffic offence and policy as such recommended a six month suspension.
· It was acknowledged that the offence was almost spent, however, also that the Committee had not had the opportunity to consider it at the time due as it had not been declared.
· It was not possible to go behind any conviction and it was to be considered as per the decision of the court.
At this point in the meeting, the Applicant and Licensing Officer withdrew while the Committee considered the application and subsequently returned to hear the decision.
Members considered very carefully all of the written and verbal evidence presented to them.
RESOLVED – that the application for renewal of the private hire driver licence be REFUSED for the following reasons:
· Policy stated that the conviction of a major traffic offence should be six months prior to the date of the application.
· The Applicant had failed to note the conviction on his application form.
· The long serving, blemish-free driver record of the applicant was acknowledged.
· Mr Khan was welcome to reapply from July 2019 and could make a request to be exempt from undertaking the tests associated with the grant of a driver licence.
Supporting documents:
- Restricted enclosure View the reasons why document 26./1 is restricted
- Restricted enclosure View the reasons why document 26./2 is restricted