Police last night dropped all licensing objections to a taxi firm they once branded a front for organised crime.
Senior Strathclyde officers withdrew their formal concerns about Glasgow-based Network Private Hire after a controversial figure known to police left the company.
Force insiders had convinced Glasgow City Council, which is responsible for licensing the taxi trade, that convicted criminal James Baxter was profiting from Network.
The Herald understands Mr Baxter was earning £3200 a month as a handyman for the firm until April and another £5000 a week until earlier this summer.
Network is now understood to have severed all its links with Mr Baxter, and a previous management regime that saw it raided in 2004 by police investigating money-laundering by the McGovern crime family.
Rob Shorthouse, director of communications at Strathclyde Police, last night said: “I can confirm that Strathclyde Police has withdrawn its objection to the licence applications lodged with Glasgow City Council by Network Private Hire. This is due to the fact that the circumstances that led to our objections have now been addressed.”
As revealed by The Herald earlier this month, the police were formally objecting to applications by Network to the council’s licensing committee for dozens of individual cabs. It is those objections that have now been withdrawn.
Crucially, The Herald understands the police would not object to any application by Network for a radio operator’s licence.
Earlier this year the council, citing police objections, refused an application by Network for such a licence, which was introduced under plans by Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill to flush gangsters out of the private-hire industry.
Network is currently still trading pending an appeal against the council’s decision to the sheriff court. That case is now likely to be settled out of court.
Network has recently secured several public-sector contracts, including lucrative deals with the NHS and the BBC and work taking children to and from Glasgow schools.
A spokesman for Network yesterday said: “We are delighted and now look forward to working with the police and the council to provide a safe, efficient and honest service to the public. We hope a line can now be drawn under this matter.”
Network officials have previously insisted they were the victims of a police vendetta – a theory laughed off by police sources last night.
Law enforcement agencies have increasingly turned to civil courts and licensing bodies in a bid to attack the soft underbelly of organised crime.
They have passed on intelligence about underworld links of firms and individuals to licensing committees, including that of Glasgow, and bodies like the Security Industry Authority, using agreements called information-sharing protocols.
Force insiders last night suggested that the departure of Mr Baxter from Network marked another success for the strategy, which has met with resistance from crime groups, many of which now employ accountants, human rights lawyers and public relations experts.
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