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fears public may be at risk
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Author:  Stationtone [ Mon Feb 23, 2009 11:26 pm ]
Post subject:  fears public may be at risk
Disclosure — fears public may be at risk
Foreign nationals are able to take jobs in this country without full checks into their backgrounds (writes Debbie Kerr).
Clearly, the vast majority of people who come to Scotland from the expanding European Union and beyond are hard-working, decent folk with no hint of criminality in their past.
Nevertheless, concerns are growing about the limited access Disclosure Scotland has to examine the criminal history of immigrants who take up jobs here.

The Disclosure Scotland check — carried out to ensure a person is suitable for a particular profession — has no jurisdiction to obtain criminal history information from other countries.

Unless a European national with a criminal record in his or her native country is featured on British records, a watch list, or has previously been deported, their crimes will not show up on the Disclosure Scotland check.

The loophole came to light after Lithuanian Vitas Plytnykas was jailed for the brutal murder of Jolanta Bledaite last week.

It later emerged Plytnykas was a serial offender.

In a second case, 38-year-old Pole Albert Michalski, who had previously been jailed fort two years in his home country, was sentenced to four months in prison after he admitted being in the possession of two lock knives on March 2 at TK Maxx in Dundee.

A number of foreign nationals, particularly from countries in the expanding European Union, have settled in the Dundee area, and some have taken up jobs as taxi drivers.

One cabbie, who did not wish to be named, said he was shocked that vulnerable people could be at risk without adequate safety checks.

He said, “Before I got my taxi licence to work in the city I had to be Disclosure Scotland checked.

“There are quite a lot of foreign drivers in Dundee who can only be Disclosure Scotland checked from the time they have been in this country.

“If they have done something in their past, nobody would know.

“Anybody could be getting in cars, not really knowing who they are or what they are capable of. In a job like a taxi driver, people are using the cars alone.

“Women, children or vulnerable people use the cars, so we should be able to trust the drivers have been properly checked out.

“Dundee City Council does everything it can to ensure drivers are checked, but it seems the current disclosure system is not working.

“I am not suggesting for a minute that all people coming from abroad have committed crimes, but more the fact that we have to be checked, surely they should also be.

“It is just a matter of safety.”

Graeme Stephen, chairman of the Dundee Taxi Association, said all drivers should be subjected to the proper tests to ensure the safety of the local community.

He said, “At the moment the taxi board can’t really check on overseas workers who have not done anything wrong in Britain.

“Even if they have been convicted in their own country, a disclosure check will not usually show it up. More thorough checks really should be done.

“Vitas Plytnykas was a well-known maniac in his home town, but if he came over here after being released, in theory he could have taken a job as a taxi driver.

“Taxi drivers have to take many vulnerable people on journeys, including single women, children and sometimes elderly people, so everyone should be going through the same sorts of checks.

“The enhanced disclosure checks we have done go right back to when you were about 16.

“One guy had that he had been caught stealing apples when he was young on his, and another driver’s form said he was caught urinating in a street.

“If that is the sort of thorough checks we are getting done, then workers from overseas should be going through the same process. If they do, and the checks are clear, then there is absolutely no problem.”

A Dundee City Council spokesman said, “Enhanced Disclosure Scotland checks are always made before someone can gain a taxi licence.

“A police check is also made, and if the police have any concerns about an individual, they make it known.

“The same checks are done for everyone and are also the same as any other licensing board in Scotland.”
Author:  Skull [ Mon Feb 23, 2009 11:44 pm ]
Post subject: 
You need more Ph. That's what works in Edinburgh. We've only had a couple of rapes in the last few months . . . . :roll:
Author:  bloodnock [ Tue Feb 24, 2009 12:26 am ]
Post subject: 
Skull wrote:
You need more Ph. That's what works in Edinburgh. We've only had a couple of rapes in the last few months . . . . :roll:


Im sure there must of been hundreds of rapes over that time in edinburgh....sadly for some they cant blame them all on PH drivers..
Author:  Over & Out [ Tue Feb 24, 2009 9:26 am ]
Post subject: 
Skull wrote:
You need more Ph. That's what works in Edinburgh. We've only had a couple of rapes in the last few months . . . . :roll:


Dundee is deregulated & we still have more than 200 PH & the numbers are still increasing :sad: :sad: :sad:
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