Agenda item

The driver was in attendance.

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

·       AA was granted a licence in December 2006 and his current licence expires January 2023.

·       PC Quinton stopped AA on 11 July 2020 and found both rear tyres defective. The near side tyre was so bald, no reading was possible. It is a condition of the licence to properly maintain tyres.

·       AA accepted responsibility for this and conducted himself well at all times. He replaced the tyres quickly after the stop.

·       AA was fined £100 and had 3 penalty points added to his licence. PC Quinton suspended the vehicle licence.

·       AA appeared at PSP in April 2020 due to not disclosing a public order offence on his renewal application. Members granted the renewal but warned AA about observing his licence conditions.

·       Paper file has 2 historic offences: 2009 not making second stop endangering passenger (no further action) and 2011 AA advisory letter about parking on a hackney rank.

The applicant gave the following evidence:

·       AA said he was surprised that the 2009 and 2011 incidents are still on record. There is no record of his account on these. No further action was taken on either of these incidents. AA had to park at the hackney rank to assist an elderly passenger. The hackney driver was upset by this and reported AA. He regards those incidents as finished and not relevant to today’s hearing.

·       AA said he had no knowledge of receiving a caution and was also surprised that this was on record. He said his child was attacked by a group of other children, so AA shouted at those children. He went to the police station to make a statement and was not aware at the time what a caution meant.

·       AA apologised for the condition of his tyres and said it was out of character as he has maintained a clean licence for 13 years. AA said he was struggling with personal circumstances as he is supporting 3 children and his wife has cancer and lack of work from covid-19 restrictions has caused the family hardship.  

After questioning from the committee, the following information was confirmed:

·       That AA appeared before PSP in April and was given a warning about his conduct.

·       Taxi drivers are expected to check the quality of their tyres regularly. AA said he normally does this, but was distracted by difficult personal circumstances.

·       It was confirmed that the committee do not take into account the personal circumstances of drivers as their priority is the safety of the public.

·       The state of the tyres was extremely poor.  

·       AA said he parked at a hackney rank to help an elderly passenger, but there are no records to support this.

·       AA had changed his name and then took a caution in a previous name. AA said that he gave his new name to the police at the time of the caution and assumes they logged it in error on a previous name. PC Quinton confirmed that the police records show that AA has 13 different names or aliases.  

The Committee withdrew to deliberate on their decision.

RESOLVED (unanimous decision)

The Committee found that AA had inadequately maintained his licensed vehicle despite having received a warning in April as to the standards expected of him. Both rear tyres were extremely bald and one of these had no tread at all. The fundamental concern of Members is public safety and they resolve to suspend his licence for a period of 3 months or until a new satisfactory Enhanced DBS certificateis returned, whichever is the longest, as members had concerns regarding his identity.