Bus sex loses taxi driver his licence
A WESTON taxi driver has been stripped of his licence after admitting to having sex with a 16-year-old girl on a bus.
Andrew Lowrie told a licensing panel he had been intimate with the teenager on an excursion to a sea-side resort, the Mercury understands.
The experienced taxi driver said the sex was consensual, but that did not sway councillors who revoked his licence for the protection of the public last month.
In a report, the panel concluded Mr Lowrie was not a ‘fit and proper person to hold such a licence’.
The banned taxi driver initially indicated he would appeal against the decision, but has since dropped the idea according to the town’s National Taxi Association.
Mr Lowrie, meanwhile, has refused to talk to the Mercury about the incident despite repeated attempts from the newspaper.
The hearing was not Mr Lowrie’s first. He had been warned of conduct by a previous licensing committee in 2006 following allegations made against him.
Then last September, following a meeting with police, North Somerset Council licensing manager Keith Taylor suspended Mr Lowrie’s licence after another allegation was made against him.
But despite responding to the previous accusations, Mr Lowrie failed to convince councillors on the licensing panel last month that he was fit enough to drive a taxi in the town.
A statement by the panel read: “The committee placed great weight on the fact that you had appeared before a previous committee and were warned about your future conduct.
“The committee considered the protection of the public, which is paramount in licensing private hire and Hackney Carriage Driver’s Licences, to be particularly relevant here.”
http://www.thewestonmercury.co.uk/news/
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