Agenda item

The Applicant was not in attendance.  The Licensing Officer confirmed that the Applicant had been advised of the date of the meeting by email and had not responded.  Members agreed that the application should be heard in his absence

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

·         The Applicant had previously held a PHD licence since June 1993 and on submitting an application for renewal he revealed that he had received 5 penalty points for a driving offence in October 2018 which had not been declared at the time;

·         There were also a number of other convictions on his record including offences in November 2017 and March 2017;

·         The application had been refused by committee on 9 July 2019 and the Applicant had reapplied on 13 September 2019;

·         The Applicant had also requested to be exempt from taking the Gold Standard test and if the Committee was minded to approve the application a decision would needed to be taken on the request for exemption;

·         The Application would also be required to complete the following elements of the fit and proper person policy:

a. Gold Standard training (if exemption not granted)

b. Knowledge test

c. an Immigration Right to Licence check,

d. an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service Check (if the current check is more than 6 months old at time of licensing)

e. A group 2 standard medical.

At this point in the meeting, the Licensing Officer withdrew from the meeting while the committee considered the application.  She returned to hear the decision.

RESOLVED – that the application for a Private Hire Driver Licence be refused.

REASON: The Applicant could not be considered a fit and proper person to be granted a licence under the provisions of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 Section 51(1)(a) due to his previous record of offences (some of which were not declared to the Licensing Authority at the time of offence) which is considerable and indicates that it would not be appropriate for him to hold either Private Hire Driver or Hackney Carriage Driver Licence. 

The Committee recommended that no further application should be made until the due dates in accordance with the policy have passed from the date of the latest conviction of 7 May 2019.