Source: Sunday Herald

A senior Labour councillor in Glasgow is under fire over his employment by a taxi firm that police claim has criminal links.

Baillie Jim Todd who chairs the controversial City Building organisation, one of Glasgow City Council’s arms-length companies, is a driver for Network Private Hire.

The SNP group on Glasgow City Council is to table a motion on Monday that could block the firm from winning any contracts from the local authority.

Network, based in the Springburn area of the city, is in the middle of a long-running war of words with Strathclyde Police.

Although the firm last year secured a £2 million taxi contract with NHS Greater Glasgow, the deal was nearly scuppered when the police force urged the health board to pull out of the contract.

Network was then denied an operator’s license by the council in April after police argued that a convicted criminal was profiting from the firm.

Police said former shareholder James Baxter was still receiving £5000 a week as a result of being bought out.

The company continues to trade pending an appeal. Network denies any links to organised crime.

The Sunday Herald can now reveal the links between Network and Todd, who is a well-placed Labour councillor in Glasgow’s corridors of power.

The Network taxi driver is a member of council committees on children and families, health and social care, personnel appeals and public processions.

More importantly, he was recently installed as chair of City Building, the arms-length firm set up by disgraced former council leader Steven Purcell. City Building has been at the centre of rows over alleged cronyism in contracts and spending that benefited the Labour Party.

Todd did not respond to this newspaper’s questions about his work for the taxi firm, but a Network spokesman said: “Councillor Jim Todd works as a taxi driver with one of the most honest firms in Greater Glasgow. We are perplexed as to why anyone would want to question this, unless they are pursuing a specific agenda.”

However, SNP MSP Bob Doris said: “Councillors need to set an example to constituents. I suspect working for Network Private Hire, given the serious concerns the police have, is not the best way to do this.

“This Labour council needs to get its act together quickly.”

In another development, SNP councillors will tomorrow attempt to stop a number of taxi firms from securing work with the council.

The SNP motion urges the council “not to award any transport contracts to companies without an operator’s license and to review any contracts already awarded to such companies”.

It was revealed recently that the council, in a cost-cutting bid, had switched its school run business to Network and other private-hire operators.

David Meikle, a Tory councillor in Glasgow, said: “We already needed a full debate on the decision by the Labour-run council to increase its work for Network Private Hire, but the revelation that the taxi firm employs a Labour councillor means it is vital we get answers on the links between the party and this company.”

A Network spokesman said: “Network Cars welcomes any initiative designed to target crime of any sort. We hope that this information-sharing protocol will target both independent firms and those hackneys involved in the illegal black market in licence plates which, as everyone knows, is a magnet for money-laundering.”

Source: BBC Online

A man labelled a “gun fanatic” has been jailed for life for shooting dead a taxi driver at a railway station. Stuart Ludlam, a 43-year-old father-of-three, was found dead in his taxi at Cromford Station in Derbyshire on 17 September last year.

Colin Cheetham, 61, from Ripley, was found guilty of murder during a trial at Nottingham Crown Court. Cheetham was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years. His victim was found in the taxi boot at the station near Matlock. He had been made to kneel in the boot and was shot in the head, the court heard.

Prosecuting, Peter Joyce QC said Cheetham appeared to have no motive other than the desire to shoot a “complete stranger”. Mr Joyce said he had planned the killing meticulously, spending much time checking out the location. Mr Ludlam had been shot as soon as he arrived at Cromford Station after being made to kneel in the back of the car.

Records showed the mobile phone used by Cheetham, who was previously a member of a gun club, to call Mr Ludlam was bought from Morrison’s supermarket in Derby. Officers searching Cheetham’s house also found a camera and photographs of various train stations - including Cromford - while the gun fanatic also researched train timetables to ensure the killing could take place in a secluded location.

Mr Joyce said: “It was his [Cheetham's] gun, he had planned it, it was his phone. “He had no knowledge of Mr Ludlam but he had a fascination with taxis and a fascination with guns and Mr Ludlam was just the unlucky man with whom this fascination ended.” Mr Ludlam, of Darley Dale, Derbyshire, was found with two gunshot wounds to the head by holidaymaker Peter Noble, who dialled 999.

After the case, Det Ch Supt Tony Blockley, from Derbyshire Police, said: “Colin Cheetham is an evil man who carried out a despicable act which was seemingly motiveless. “This crime was totally unpredictable. My own personal point of view is that he has executed Mr Ludlam simply to see what it would be like to kill someone due to his personal fascination with firearms.

“My only hope is at some point he can explain to someone why he has done this as we have never been able to prove a motive or glean the real story about what happened from Cheetham. “That leaves many unanswered questions for Mr Ludlam’s family and friends.”

Andrew Brough, 57, of Heanor, Derbyshire, previously pleaded guilty to firearms offences in connection with the investigation. He will be sentenced on 22 July.

Source: Oxford Mail

FRESH forensic evidence could lead detectives to the killer of an Oxford taxi driver two decades after he was murdered. Police used the 20th anniversary of Leonard Gomm’s murder to announce they have uncovered new evidence.

The body of Mr Gomm was discovered on the grass verge in Hampton Gay Lane, near Bletchingdon, four hours after he set out to take a customer to Bicester on June 13, 1990. The 75-year-old father-of-three, from Forest Hill, near Wheatley, had been stabbed.

But now police believe they may have a breakthrough. Last night the police and Mr Gomm’s three daughters made an appeal for anyone who knows anything about his death to finally come forward.

Det Supt Barry Halliday, head of the Thames Valley Police major crime review team, declined to reveal what the new forensic evidence was, but said it would allow police to rule out anyone not involved.

He said: “Members of the public can be assured this evidence will allow us to eliminate anyone not responsible from our inquiries. “Even the smallest piece of information they have, even if they think it is insignificant, may help us find the person responsible.

“I do not want to go into the details of what the evidence is, but I can say it is clear forensic evidence which is quite substantial.”

Mr Gomm’s body was discovered at 10.50am on Wednesday June 13, 1990, by lorry driver David Crisp. The taxi driver’s blue Ford Granada – registration A592 ARD – was five yards from his body. Mr Gomm had radioed his employers, ABC Taxis in Oxford, at 6.35am to say he was taking a fare to Bicester.

Two witnesses saw the victim driving his taxi at that time and saw that he had a passenger with him. Det Supt Halliday said: “The motive is still unclear. Money was still in the cashbox of the taxi. “Robbery has not been completely ruled out, but there could be other reasons.”

Mr Gomm had celebrated his 46th wedding anniversary with his wife Gwendoline a month before he was killed. Dozens of cabbies were in convoy at his funeral, held in his home village. Det Supt Halliday said someone living nearby may know what happened to Mr Gomm that day.

Source: Associated Press

A taxi driver went on a shooting spree across a rural area of northwestern England on Wednesday, police said, killing 12 people and wounding 25 others before turning the gun on himself.

The rampage in Cumbria was the deadliest mass shooting since 1996 in Britain, where gun ownership is tightly restricted and handguns are banned.

The deadly spree “has shocked the people of Cumbria and around the country to the core,” Deputy Chief Constable Stuart Hyde said.

Officers found Bird’s body in woods near the Lake District village of Boot. Hyde said two weapons were recovered from the scene.

The shootings occurred in the town of Whitehaven and nearby Seascale and Egremont, about 350 miles (560 kilometers) northwest of London. The area is popular with hikers and vacationers.

Health service spokesman Nigel Calvert said three of the injured were in a critical condition in the hospital.

Hyde said there were 30 separate crime scenes. Witnesses described seeing the gunman driving around shooting out the window of his car. His victims included a woman on a bicycle, a farmer in his field and at least two fellow taxi drivers.

Barrie Walker, a doctor in Seascale who certified one of the deaths, told the BBC that victims had been shot in the face, apparently with a shotgun.

Witness Alan Hannah told the Whitehaven News that he saw a man with a shotgun in a car near a taxi stand in Whitehaven. Photos showed a body, covered in a sheet, lying in a street in the town.

“This kind of thing doesn’t happen in our part of the world,” local lawmaker Jamie Reed told the BBC. “We have got one of the lowest, if not the lowest, crime rates in the country.”

Multiple shootings in Britain are rare. In 1987, gun enthusiast Michael Ryan killed 16 people in the English town of Hungerford. In 1996, Thomas Hamilton killed 16 children and a teacher at a kindergarten in Dunblane, Scotland.

Glenda Pears, who runs L&G Taxis in Whitehaven, said one of the victims was another taxi driver who was a friend of Bird’s.

“They used to stand together having a (laugh) on the rank,” she said. “He was friends with everybody and used to stand and joke on Duke Street.”

Sue Matthews, who works at A2B Taxis in Whitehaven, said Bird was self-employed, quiet and lived alone.

“I would say he was fairly popular. I would see him once a week out and about. He was known as ‘Birdy,’” she said.

“I can’t believe he would do that — he was a quiet little fellow.

Source: Glasgow Evening Times

A taxi firm has been denied an operator’s licence following police claims of criminal links, just months after securing a £2million NHS contract.

Glasgow City Council refused Network Private Hire a licence for its booking office under new legislation after Strathclyde Police successfully argued that a convicted criminal, who was a shareholder until last July, was continuing to profit from the firm.

Police said James Baxter, 49, was still receiving £5000-per-week from Network as a result of being bought out.

The firm’s lawyer, leading QC Paul McBride, confirmed payments were still being made to Baxter but said he was being paid off in instalments rather than in a lump sum after quitting as a director last July.

Mr McBride said this was his legal entitlement as a former major shareholder. He added that Baxter, who continued to be employed in a junior capacity on an alleged £500-a-week on top of his instalments, had been sacked a fortnight ago after the full extent of his criminal past became known.

Police read details of an incident where Baxter and an accomplice forced their way into a nightclub where a steward was then shot by the second man.

Network, which has around 800 drivers, will continue trading while an appeal to the sheriff courts is conducted. The firm is understood to have told police that the outstanding amount owed to Baxter will not be paid out in full.

An NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde spokesman said: “The legal advice is that this does not affect our contract with them.”

Source: Kent Online

A man has been jailed for an indeterminate period for a brutal attack on a defenceless taxi driver in Kent. Driver Gordon Bailey, of Gravesend, was left with serious facial injuries after the assault.

It happened after the 64-year-old picked up a fare in Gravesend and took him and a companion to Paddock Wood. That fare was Mark Heanan, 23, of Edenbridge.

As the taxi reached its destination in July last year, Heanan climbed into the front of the taxi and demanded the keys.

Mr Bailey refused and was attacked by Heanan, who punched and kicked his victim. The yob then ran from the scene with the taxi takings for the evening.

Mark Heanan, jailedHeanan admitted a charge of wounding with intent when he appeared at Maidstone Crown Court on Friday. He will serve a minimum of three years, seven months and seven days.

Detective Sgt Miles Bishop said: “This was a vicious, prolonged and cowardly attack. Mr Bailey was in no position to defend himself yet Heanan continued the assault with the intention of causing him serious harm.

“Mr Bailey suffered serious injuries; it is to his credit that he has been able to assist our investigation and help us produce the evidence that has put Heanan behind bars.”