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Cabbie wins back licence after abuse claim


A TAXI driver who lost his Hackney Carriage licence after a 'foul-mouthed' outburst at another cabbie has won it back.

Father-of-three Zahangir Hussain, 36, had been ordered off the road last July, when Rossendale Council revoked his licence.

He had then appealed the decision before Reedley Magistrates' Court last November. They had still found he was not a fit and proper person to hold a licence, but suspended it for three months instead.

Mr Hussain, of Burnley Road, Rawtenstall, then took his fight to Burnley Crown Court, where a judge, sitting with two justices allowed him to keep his licence, but warned him to behave.

The hearing had been told how Mr Hussain lost his temper and used foul language to another driver in May last year. The incident was particularly upsetting for a female passenger in the other taxi, who witnessed it.

Mr Hussain, who had held a licence since 2008, had not been convicted of any criminal offence over the incident.

But, under a bylaw, taxi drivers must, as conditions of their Hackney Carriage licence, be polite and behave in a civil and orderly manner and the words used could not be said to be civil and orderly.

The appellant, giving evidence via an interpreter, said he had a family and a mortgage. He told the Bench: "This punishment will affect my whole family."

Mr Hussain, who has been allowed to carry on working pending appeal, said: "I realise what I did was very, very wrong. I am sorry. I won't do that again."

Judge Beverley Lunt said the issue was whether, on the balance of probabilities, the appellant was a fit and proper person to hold a licence.

She said the Bench could understand why, last July, the Rossendale Council Licensing Committee was very concerned about Mr Hussain's conduct. She said 15 months had now passed, there had been no further incidents reported and that must be put into the balance.

She told the court: "We are satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, he is today a fit and proper person to hold a Hackney Carriage licence. We allow the appeal and remove the suspension."

source: http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/ne ... use_claim/

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

What the court would have taken into account, I'm sure, is the proportionality of the punishment in relation to the offence.

Does removing someone's income for three months seem fair for an offence of swearing like a trooper at another cabby?

In my view the last court got it right.

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IDFIMH

Strange how he needed to speak through an interpreter at court yet his use of swear words was clearly understood by others.

I was thinking that myself

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