Agenda item

The Licensing Manager, on behalf of the Executive Director (Legal and Democratic Services), submitted a report to enable members to consider whether to grant a renewal of driver (MAK) private hire and hackney carriage joint drivers licence. 

Options presented to Members were; renew or not to renew.

The driver has held a licence with the Council since the 18^th January 2002 (when the electronic records start). His current licence expired on the 6^th June 2025, and the application to renew his licence was received on the 30^th May 2025.

It was noted that on the 4^th May 2022 the driver attended a virtual disability awareness classroom course, which included education regarding the regulations about assistance dogs.

A complaint was received in the Licensing department on the 13^th May 2024 from a member of the public alleging an incident of discrimination under the Equality Act 2010.

The driver was interviewed on 2 occasions by the Licensing department following this complaint; the transcripts of the interviews were available to the committee to read.

CCTV footage was shown during the committee of the driver and complainant’s interaction on the day of the alleged incident.

Following the investigation into the complaint, the Licensing authority made a decision to prosecute the driver; the case had been adjourned and will not be heard by Magistrates until August 2025.

The driver attended the committee along with his representative Mr Mike Thorpe, Licensing Consultant to discuss the circumstances leading up to attending the committee today. They presented that he is a well-respected driver of 38 years who is due to retire soon, the driver accepted the booking and arrived at the job to find the complainant and a dog. The driver questioned that the dog was on a lead and questioned the complainant if the dog was an assistance dog. The driver asked the complainant to sit in the rear of the vehicle, which she did not want too, and then following a conversation, the driver pressed the no fayre button and the driver drove off without the complainant. A character reference was read out regarding Mr Khan to the committee from his employer.

The member of the public who submitted the complaint, attended the meeting today and gave a short witness statement. She confirmed the details in the report were correct that the Licensing Manager read out and that she offered to show the driver her licenced documentation that she is registered blind but he did not want to see it. She has used the taxi firm for a number of years and never had any issues before this incident. A copy of a witness statement dated 14^th May 2024 was also available for the committee to read.

Members were given the opportunity to ask questions of the officer, driver and witness before retiring to consider a decision.

Resolved – That, the first part of the decision the committee made was to make a preliminary point to state that the driver had received a fair hearing today and had not been prejudiced by the ongoing prosecution which had been adjourned till August 2025.

The committee had serious concerns over the information received and evidence shown today. They commended the driver’s long and clean driving history, however after hearing all the evidence submitted today they found the explanation for the incident on the 13^th May 2024 to be inconsistent and had reason to doubt the driver’s credibility. On the balance of probabilities the committee were satisfied the incident occurred as presented by the Licensing Manager and after listening to the witness and her statements.

The CCTV that was shown during the committee clearly showed the driver acted very dangerously and put a member of the public at a very serious risk of harm.

Therefore, the committee determined the driver was not a fit and proper person to hold a private hire and hackney carriage joint driver’s licence and made the decision not to renew his licence.