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Stone Roses' Minicab & Taxi drivers Fined For Illegal Profiteering

Thousands in fines for drivers on the make

Minicab and hackney carriage drivers have had to pay a total of more than £1,200 for illegally picking up customers after last summer’s Stone Roses concerts.

Shahid Iqbal from Abbey Hills Road in Oldham pleaded guilty to the offence at Manchester Magistrates’ Court on Friday 6 February.

He was fined £200 with £300 costs and a £15 victims of crime surcharge. The court heard that Manchester City Council licensing officers, who had been looking out for illegal cab drivers outside Heaton Park after all three concerts, spotted Iqbal allowing two men into his Oldham-licensed private hire car on Middleton Road on Sunday 1 July and offering to take them into Manchester city centre.

Private hire drivers are legally only allowed to pick up customers on pre-booked jobs and journeys are not insured if the driver takes people from the street.

The licensing officers interviewed Iqbal, aged 39, on the street and he claimed he had been waiting for a friend. Another two drivers, Mazher Hussain from Oswald Street in Rochdale and Atif Itqbal from Manchester Road in Oldham, also pleaded guilty to picking up passengers from the street despite their hackney carriages being licensed with other authorities, during hearings on 16 January.

They were both fined £100 with £300 costs and £15 victims of crime surcharges. Hussain, aged 36, whose was driving a Rochdale-licensed car and Iqbal, aged 29, driving an Oldham licensed car, both offered to take plain clothed licensing officers into the city centre.

Another six cab drivers are due to appear before magistrates over the next few months charged with illegally picking up passengers after the concerts.

Councillor Nigel Murphy, Manchester City Council’s executive member for the environment, said: "Last summer’s Stone Roses concerts attracted 70,000 people every night and unfortunately there were some cab drivers who wanted to capitalise on this by illegally picking up passengers from the street, without any regard for their passengers’ safety as these journeys would not have been insured.

"We had warned cab drivers not to attempt this as there would be licensing officers on the scene, while we also set up a rank for legitimate black cab drivers. There is never any excuse for this and we will also continue to watch out for illegal cab drivers in the city centre.”

source: http://www.manchesterconfidential.co.uk ... ofiteering

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Another six cab drivers are due to appear before magistrates over the next few months charged with illegally picking up passengers after the concerts.

Why would it be illegal for hackneys to pick up if they were licensed for that district ?

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

because they weren't licensed in the district?

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin