Taxi Driver Online

Boss' fury after cops seize limo

A LIMO company boss is furious after police seized his £100,000 stretch Hummer as part of crackdown on rogue drivers. They took the specially-adapted 18-seat Hummer outside Belle Vue stadium following a row over the driver's licence. The Hummer's owner, Jason Earl, had to organise another limo from a rival company to pick up his customers after their night at the dogs.

He insists police were wrong to impound his car and he now wants £1,500 in compensation. His Hummer was off the road for two days. He had to pay a £190 release fee to get his car back. It is now back on the road – with the same driver at the wheel. Greater Manchester Police is investigating Mr Earl's complaint.

Mr Earl, 40, who owns Wigan-based Earl's Limousines, insisted his driver had a licence enabling him to drive large buses, which his Hummer requires by law as it has more than 16 seats. He said officials were shown a license allowing the driving of large commercial buses.

But the Hummer was seized anyway after officials checked the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency computer database, which suggested the driver could not work for 'hire or reward'.

Mr Earl claimed: “They just got it completely wrong and I wonder how many other drivers have been put in the same position. “The limo is back on the road now with the same driver and I supposed there's always a chance it could be seized again. “The driver used to work for National Express. He's been driving large buses for 18 years, single deckers and big coaches.

“It's one of only two 18-seater stretch limousines in the UK. It's just a year old and was imported from the US. They are converted at a cost of £18,000 to meet UK regulations. Fortunately, a friend of mine has the other one and I was able to get him to pick up the party of people we had dropped off at Belle Vue. “It was a complete mess up. I can't believe it.”

A spokesman from GMP said: “The circumstances surrounding the seizure are being investigated after the driver appealed the decision.” A VOSA spokeswoman said their vehicle examiner was 'led to believe' that the driver's licence barred him from operating 'for hire or reward'.

She added: “The police established that the driver did not hold the correct category of driving licence and impounded the vehicle for no insurance. The police have dealt with both driver and vehicle.”

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IDFIMH

The police have got this one totally wrong. The driver has the correct driving license and the vehicle has a COIF and the correct operating license. The driver has just renewed his license and the idiots at Swansea did not put the correct details into the computer so that when the police checked on the computer the result came back that the driver could not carry passengers for hire and reward but the police refused to check the drivers actual license that showed that he did in fact have the correct license. I am told that the police are being sued for around £1500 loss of earnings.

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Grandad,

They will lose then if the police acted on what they thought was correct information at the time.

Best bet they sue the DVLA.

That article indicates that the vehicle was an 18 seater.

Therefore does that owner have a full PSV operator's license, not one of those dodgy restricted things.

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IDFIMH

He has a full PSV operators license. Jason was one of the first operators to get his vehicles Coifed and he does everything by the book.
Incidently another operator had a similar situation a while back where the DVLA record was incorrect but on that occasion the police officer checked the license and spotted that the driver did have the correct license before the vehicle was impounded.
I think the reason that Jason is trying to sue the police is because the driver had his license with him but the officer would not accept it. A similar error has also been found when drrivers renew there licenses and the DVLA have been missing the drivers entitlement to ride motor cycles. The place seems like a shambles.

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Grandad,

Good to see the authorities cracking down on the Chav Transporters.

Let’s hope they don't start to use taxis instead, there's usually an adequate Bus Service for those sorts.

Meeeoowwwwwww

Jason has confirmed that the police have admitted that they made a mistake and they are going to put it right.

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Grandad,

So they will be putting it into the crusher after all

Have to find a bloody big crusher.

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IDFIMH

Jason has now had a letter from the police confirming that they were wrong. He has had the fee for the confiscation of his vehicle returned and the civil litigation department are paying the compensation for the time the vehicle was off the road.

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Grandad,

Mistakes happen. Hopefully, the compensation is sufficient to allow him to draw a veil over the incident.

It wasn't a mistake though, the policeman didn't even look at the drivers license. If he had he would have seen that everything was in order.

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Grandad,

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... limo_storm

Enough said.

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Grandad,