Wealden taxi driver will continue to operate despite bombarding 16-year-old school girl with text messagesA TAXI driver will continue to work in Wealden despite bombarding a teenage girl with inappropriate text messages after dropping her off at school.
The 16-year-old's mother complained to Wealden District Council, which licenses the driver, after her daughter received a stream of messages from the man after he gave her a lift.
The council has refused to reveal the man's identity or even in which part of the district he operates.
At a licensing committee meeting in November, the minutes of which were published last month, it was considered whether he was fit to continue to operate as a taxi driver.
He was handed 12 penalty points on his taxi licence – which is separate from his main driving licence – and it was decided that the driver had "learnt a lesson" on the boundaries of what type of behaviour is acceptable.
If any other penalty points are accrued he will be brought before the committee for a further hearing and may lose his licence.
In his defence the driver claimed he had forgotten the details of a science website he and the passenger had discussed as he took her to school.
But the girl said that no such website was discussed and that the text messages were unwanted and she had not responded in an encouraging way.
She added that no mention was made of the website in the driver's text messages.
At the same meeting, councillors also refused to re-issue another man with a licence after he was accused of coercing a different 16-year-old schoolgirl into a sexually explicit conversation.
The man, who strenuously denied the allegations, was investigated by Sussex Police at the time of the alleged incident in January 2013 but no charges were brought against him.
He told members of the committee that it had been the girl who instigated the conversation but councillors took the view it was probably the case that some form of "grossly inappropriate conversation" took place, which should have been avoided.
The applicant was considered to not be a fit and proper person and his permission for a dual licence – that of a taxi licence alongside his driving licence – was subsequently refused.
The district council's head of environmental health, Richard Parker-Harding, said: "It is important that passengers using taxis licensed by Wealden District Council feel safe at all times.
"We will investigate all complaints made by members of the public against licensed drivers and take appropriate action. Before a licence is granted, we will investigate the applicant's background including any criminal record."
The district council refused to comment further on why the first man was allowed to keep his taxi licence.
Read more:
http://www.eastgrinsteadcourier.co.uk/W ... z2qNpBWdLS
Login
Register
FAQ
