Agenda item

The Applicant was in attendance.

The Licensing Officer outlined the background to the application as follows:

·         The Application was for a Private Hire Driver licence;

·         On applying for a licence, the Applicant had declared a caution for solicitation;

·         The Applicant had previously held a Hackney Carriage Licence and on applying for this to be renewed, this had been refused by Committee and on appealing to the Magistrate’s Court, the appeal was dismissed;

·         Subsequent applications had also been refused by the Committee;

·         The Applicant was also asking that, in the event of him being granted a licence, he be exempt from undertaking the Knowledge Test and Gold Standard training;

·         The Council’s Policy on serious sexual offences recommended a period of 5-15 years free of conviction before an application would be considered and in the case of the Applicant, the 5 year period would end in October 2019.

The Applicant presented his case as follows:

·       He had worked as a taxi driver since 1981 during which time he had undertaken school runs and transported passengers to and from elderly people’s homes and he used to run his own private hire company;

·       Taxi driving had been his only career and he loved it;

·       He was known to Licensing Officers and had no record of complaints from passengers;

·       During the time of the offences he was having a marital crisis, the result of which he lost his home;

·       He was sorry for the offences and after a period of not working he was ready to move on.

In response to questioning, the Applicant confirmed that the soliciting incidents were isolated during a time when he was having marital difficulties.  The Licensing Officer confirmed that there was no record of any other offences.

In response to questioning as to why he was seeking exemption from the Knowledge Test and Gold Standard, the Applicant confirmed that he knew the job and the city of Bristol well and so he did not think that he needed to undertake the training and test.  The Licensing Officer confirmed that it was standard for drivers who had not had a licence for more than a year to retake all the necessary checks and training, but the Committee could consider an exemption if this was considered appropriate.

In response to questioning, the Applicant confirmed that although he no longer lived in Bristol, he visited at least once a week to visit his daughters.  He also confirmed that he was confident of being able to find employment due to his contacts in the trade.

The Council’s Legal Adviser confirmed that the Council Policy stated that a driver should be free of conviction for a period of 5-15 years before an application was considered and if less than this time, the Committee would need to consider whether the Applicant could be treated as an exemption to the policy.  In relation to the Gold Standard training, this was a bespoke training course including the use of wheelchairs and customer relations.

In summing up, the Applicant asked the Committee to consider granting his licence as he wanted to get back to the job he loved.

At this point in the meeting the Licensing Officer and the Applicant withdrew from the meeting while the Committee considered the application.  They returned to the meeting to hear the decision.

RESOLVED – that Licensing Officers be given delegated authority to grant a Private Hire Driver’s Licence subject to the Applicant passing all other elements of the fit and proper person test in accordance with Council Policy.

Reasons:

The Committee was satisfied that the Applicant should be treated as an exception to the offending behaviour policy in that although the most recent offence was still less than 5 years old, the offences both occurred during a very difficult period in the Applicant’s life.  The court imposed a modest fine in respect of the most recent offence which suggested that the offending conduct was considered to be at the less serious end of the scale.  The Applicant had expressed remorse and the Committee was satisfied that he was rehabilitated.  The Committee also noted that there were no records of any other complaints.

Consequently, the caution and the conviction would not debar the Applicant from having a Private Hire Driver’s Licence.   However, the Committee were not prepared to grant the Applicant an exemption from taking the Gold Standard and Knowledge tests given the period of time he had been unlicensed.