Taxi Driver Online

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/ex-policeman-who-abducted-schoolgirl-18862746

Ex-policeman who abducted schoolgirl wins fight to be taxi driver
The council declined Imran Ali's application but a judge found him "remorseful" and "rehabilitated"


Magistrates have overturned the council's decision to refuse his licence application. (Image: Trinity Mirror)
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An ex-policeman who once abducted a schoolgirl has won his fight to become a taxi driver in Sefton.

Imran Ali, 39, picked up a 15-year-old and another girl in a vehicle after the teenagers had spent the evening in Manchester city centre in 2006.

Ali, of Merston Drive, Manchester, pleaded guilty at Preston Crown Court to abducting a child under 16 in February 2007.

At the time of the offence, he was based at Didsbury police station but later resigned from the force.

Earlier this year, he applied for a private hire licence from Sefton Council - despite living more than 40 miles from the borough.

The council's taxi licensing committee refused his application on the basis that "driving a taxi is a privilege" and that Ali "was not a fit and proper person".

Speaking at the appeal at South Sefton Magistrates Court today, Sefton's Principal Trading Standards Officer Mark Toohey said: "One of the things we [the panel] consider is whether or not we would be satisfied with a member of our family getting into the vehicle with this person driving.

"And in this case we would not be."

However, Mr Ali today said he was completely "remorseful" and "rehabilitated", and that he has been working tirelessly throughout the Covid-19 pandemic to deliver food parcels to those in need.

Ali said: "I am managing three different charities. I have proven myself, I am giving back to society."


He also explained he has a successful property portfolio with 43 tenants, and has recently obtained a qualification in civil engineering.

He provided a number of character references to the court, however the only one of these which mentioned his prior conviction was written by a close friend of his.

Ali also said he had been nominated for a number of awards due to his "admirable" time spent volunteering during the pandemic.

Sefton's lawyer Fiona Townsend asked why he wanted to be a taxi driver, given his civil engineering qualifications, as well as him having an SIA licence, and having other employment experience.

Ali said it came down to the flexible working hours, and that he would have to study for another year to receive a civil engineering degree, which he could not afford to do.

When asked why he chose to operate so far from home, he said there was a much bigger waiting list for a private hire licence in Manchester than in Sefton.

Sefton Council's taxi licensing panel committee adheres to a set of guidelines, used as a rule of thumb.

Mr Toohey said these are in line with national guidelines and that, for example, those who have been involved in an assault with a child would have to wait at least ten years before a licence was considered.

There is, Mr Toohey said, no time given on child abduction, as cases of this nature come up so rarely.

Magistrates today reversed the council's decision to refuse his private hire licence.

Magistrate Keith Elford said: "Mr Ali's conviction dates back more than 14 years.

"Since then, he has successfully built a business portfolio and achieved qualifications, as well as starting a family.

"During the Covid-19 pandemic, he has contributed significantly to the welfare of his local community.

"Sefton Council could not set a precedent for this type of offence.

"He is a fit and proper person for a taxi driver licence."

And he really wants to drive a PH in Sefton despite living in Manchester.

Don't add up for me.

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IDFIMH

yes there's more to this than meets the eye

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

He has 43 properties and yet wants to be a ph driver?.sounds dodgy.

Even the Daily Mail have got involved.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... river.html

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IDFIMH

Came across this on the IoL's website, which was published there a couple of weeks ago.

Magistrates, eh?


Sefton Council overturns Magistrates Court’s decision to grant ex-policeman convicted of child abduction taxi licence.

Published Date: 29/11/2021

In September 2019 Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council’s taxi licensing panel had refused Imran Ali a taxi driver’s licence on the basis that he was not a fit and proper person. In his application Mr Ali had disclosed a previous criminal conviction for child abduction in 2007 after Mr Ali, then 26 years old and a serving police officer, had picked up two teenage girls, both aged under 16, in Manchester City Centre. Mr Ali pleaded guilty to the offence and was sentenced to 6 months’ imprisonment wholly suspended for a period of 18 months. He was also made subject to an 18 month supervision order at Manchester Crown Court.

However, in September 2020, Mr Ali successfully appealed the Council’s decision to refuse him a taxi licence. In a widely reported case, that caused considerable concern in taxi licensing circles, Sefton Magistrates’ Court found that Mr Ali was a fit and proper person. The Court noted that he had built a business portfolio, started a family, significantly helped the community during the COVID-19 pandemic and his conviction was many years old.

A spokesman for Sefton said after the magistrates’ court ruling that the council was “bitterly disappointed” with the decision. Fiona Townsend from the Council’s legal team instructed Gary Grant of Francis Taylor Building to act for Sefton in a further appeal to the Crown Court against the magistrates’ ruling.

In its appeal notice the Council submitted that Mr Ali’s previous offending went to the heart of the modern approach to taxi licensing that had developed since the Rochdale and other grooming scandals came to light.

It argued that Mr Ali had abused a position of trust with a vulnerable child in 2006, whilst still a police officer.

Sefton said councils, and by extension the courts, are entreated to take a cautious approach when they determine whether or not to grant a taxi driver licence to a person who has serious criminal convictions that involve vulnerable victims.

The notice of appeal placed considerable weight on the Statutory Taxi & Private Hire Vehicle Standards Guidance, issued by the Department of Transport in July 2020, where the modern formulation of the fit and proper person test is set out (at §5.12-5.13):

“Without any prejudice, and based on the information before you, would you allow a person for whom you care, regardless of their condition, to travel alone in a vehicle driven by this person at any time of day or night?

If, on the balance of probabilities, the answer to the question is ‘no’, the individual should not hold a licence.”

In line with the Guidance, the Council argued that the safeguarding of the public is paramount and particular caution should be taken where offences against children and vulnerable people are involved. This means that an applicant should not be given “the benefit of the doubt”.

The Council referred the Crown Court to Annex A of the Guidance which recommends that no taxi licences should be granted, no matter how much time has passed since the offence, in the following instance of relevance:

Exploitation: Where an applicant or licensee has been convicted of a crime involving, related to, or has any connection with abuse, exploitation, use or treatment of another individual irrespective of whether the victim or victims were adults or children, they will not be licensed. This includes slavery, child sexual abuse, exploitation, grooming, psychological, emotional or financial abuse, but this is not an exhaustive list.

The Council submitted that Mr Ali’s behaviour in 2006 fell within this category.

Arguing that the decision of the magistrates’ court was wrong, the notice invited the Crown Court to reinstate the Council’s original decision to refuse to grant Mr Ali a taxi driver’s licence on the basis that he does not meet the “fit and proper person” test.

Following service of the Council’s arguments on Mr Ali, in October 2021 Mr Ali indicated he would no longer oppose the Council’s appeal. The matter was listed at Liverpool Crown Court on 14 October 2021 where, in open court, His Honour Judge Watson QC quashed the decision of the magistrates’ court that Mr Ali was a fit and proper person to hold a taxi driver’s licence and upheld the original decision of Sefton Council to refuse him a licence.

Mistreatment, the highlighted word should be??

The question we are still all asking is why on earth the fella wanted to drive a PH when he has all those properties and other career options to pursue.

That’s worries me more than anything else.

And to answer a comment above, when the judge gave his decision in court, sitting to the right of him would have been a magistrate and sitting to the left of him would have been another magistrate.

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IDFIMH

Perhaps he knew where he could get a very good school job

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Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!

I wonder where the money came from to have bought the property to enable him to have 43 tenants? Maybe he has to much taxable income from these properties and is looking for a way of writing off some of this profit by having a loss making business.

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Grandad,

we have one here that works days for one of the other firms who owns about a dozen rented properties but is very bad at sharing work to the extent that other drivers who work with him get fed up and quit because they sit on the rank while he flies around filling his pockets. it is pure greed but as he is the owners son he'll never get sacked

There are many about who will never have enough

as for him working in Sefton instead of manc well a lot less likely people will know who he is and what he's done

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Maybe he wanted a Sefton plate to work elsewhere.

Like Brighton and Hove